Stary Mwaba was raised in Chingola, Zambia. The environment was intellectually stimulating from the very beginning – surrounded by a lot of traditional craftsmen and performers in an urban metropolitan area where different cultures and urban practices encountered each other.

Many factors influence Mwaba’s practice but he has always wanted to say something strong and critical through his work about issues that are important in the preservation of life, spirituality and the development of society.Mwaba tries to bring out the important moments in the spiritual realm that exists beyond what meets the eye, capturing everything to do with a particular beautiful moment. He tries to engage the viewer to go beyond the appreciation of that captured moment which usually goes unnoticed, but to question its very existence at that particular time space.

Attaching great importance to identity, Mwaba’s has also taken a journey into self discovery, always asking questions about self and what exists. “I believe this allows me to create work in a context in which not only my culture and experiences can be seen, but experienced and studied in depth or compared and contrasted across time and space”. Mwaba’s paintings represent his unending anxiety and restless search for material comfort and spiritual and emotional fulfilment through this journey into self discovery. Experimenting with different media, he deals with themes such as cultural identity issues, politics and many others.

Mwaba has participated in a number of residences, exhibitions and international workshops, which include Robert Wilson’s Watermill Residence New York, The Caribbean Contemporary Arts, Trinidad and Tobago and the Braziers International workshop, London.

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