Stary Mwaba has been drawing and painting his whole life. He is self taught and has no art schooling. A French missionary woman, who fell in love with his way to paint, offered him a job as an art teacher.
”She told me to teach what I do and how I do it”. When Stary came to Lusaka he joined the artists at the Henry Tayali Gallery but is since many years to be found at Rockston Workshop and Gallery on 27 Elm road in Woodlands which he at present time shares with two other artists.
Stary Mwaba was born in 1976 in Chingola in the Copperbelt. The family moved soon after to Kasama where he grew up and lived until he was 21years old. He then moved to Lusaka and has now spend 13 years in the capital.
When Stary was 18 years old his father passed away and after a long time of illness his mother passed away four years later. He was especially attached to his mother. During the time of his mothers illness Stary was not able to sleep at all so to cope with the distress Stary stayed up every night painting in the light of a candle. To convey feelings, anger, thoughts, sorrow, distress and also happiness through art is something that Stary is doing himself when painting but wants to focus more on and help others do. He has been involved with refugee projects together with UNHCR and he goes regularly to an orphanage run by a polish nun close to Chaminuka Lodge in Lusaka.
In 2004 Stary won ‘the British Commonwealth Award for Arts and Crafts’ which took him to an international workshop in Trinidad and Tobago.
Stary has since participated in a number of exhibitions and international workshops, which include the Watermill Centre, ’a laboratory for performance’ in New York, The Caribbean Contemporary Arts in Trinidad and Tobago, Braziers International workshop in London. His solo exhibitions include the “Freedom in Transition” at Lusaka National Museum in 2008, “Solace of a migrant” in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2009, “Crossing Over” at Caribbean Contemporary Arts, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 2005 and Museo di san Salvatore in Lauro in Rome 2010.
In his paintings he, most often, combines reality with abstract people and objects. You can also find typical Zambian elements such as people, buildings and even chitenge fabric. Some of his paintings are for sale at the art centre at the Tiyende Pamodzi Theatre at the American International School or you can visit his workshop ‘Rockston’ in Woodlands. This humble artist is a true Zambian at heart but my guess is that he will be very busy travelling the world in the future.
Bodil Sörensen
