Masimba Hwati was born in 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe, and currently lives and works in Michigan, USA. He graduated from the Harare Polytechnic in 2003 with a diploma in Fine Art. In 2017, Hwati obtained a Certificate in Building Indigenous Knowledge Systems for Development at the Coady International Institut at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Canada. Hwati then completed his Master’s degree in Fine Art from the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA In 2019. His MFA thesis exhibition, titled Dry Socks in a Submerged Canoe, was exhibited at the Stamps Gallery in Ann Arbour, Michigan the same year.

Hwati’s solo exhibitions include 2021’s To Be Continued at Eigenheim Gallery in Weimar, Berlin, Germany; 2019’s Sokunge / As If at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa; Instruments of Memory / Simbi dzeNdangariro at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, South Africa; and Don’t Worry Be Happy, as part of Tomorrows/Today for the Special Project Section at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2016); Quantumlogikat Gallery Delta in Harare, Zimbabwe (2014); and 2011’s Facsimiles of Energyat Gallery Delta in Harare.

Hwati has been shown his work in a number of group exhibitions, including Unraveled. Restructured. Revealed: Where Contemporary Art and Diverse Perspectives Intersect, curated by Tyanna J. Buie at the Trout Musuem of Art in Appleton, USA (2021); Matereality at Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town (2020); From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art’s (MMFA) and Contemporary Art for Schools at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, both in 2018; Pixels Of Ubuntu/Unhu, curated by Raphael Chikukwa for the Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale; and Trek – Following Journeys at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, both in 2015; Between the Sheets at Gallery East in North Freemantle, Australia (2012); Colour Africa: Zeitgenössische Kunst Aus Simbabwe at the Kulturallmende in Munich, Germany; and Food for Thought at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, both in 2011.

In 2017, Hwati was the featured artist for SMAC Gallery’s presentation at Art Brussels in Brussels, Belgium.

In 2016 Hwati was the winner of the Cape Town Art Fair’s curated Special Projects Section: Tomorrows/Today. In 2015, he participated in the Zimbabwean Cultural Centre of Detroit (ZCCD) Artist Exchange programme, partnered with the Witt Visiting Artist Program at the Stamp School of Art and Design in Michigan.