Norbert Shamuyarira learned sculpting from one of the giants of the first generation Zimbabwean sculptors, the late Bernard Takawira.  After a chance encounter at the age of 17, Norbert worked with Takawira for four years from 1980 to 1984

Born in 1962 in  Chinhoyi, in northern Zimbabwe, Shamuyarira was deeply saddened by the death of his mother when he was nine.  Shortly after, his father left the family and his brother also passed.  These  tragedies influenced much of his early work, moving toward themes that relate to human relationships and personal feeling.  However, since the mid 1990’s his subject matter has become more diversified, including comment on contemporary issues that go beyond his own personal life experiences.

Today Norbert Shamuyarira is expressing humor and the joy of life in his fine art sculpture.  Dancing girls with skirts whiling around them, or a large head with a mouth protruding for a kiss are playfully expressed in his distinctive, elongated figures.

Norbert Shamuyarira is collected worldwide for work characterized by a respect for the shape and texture of the stone as he captures the familiar gesture, expression and experience of human life.  He instinctively has shown an acute awareness of letting stone be stone—in the time-honored tradition of the great carver-sculptors from Michelangelo to Brancusi to Moore, a tradition to which Shona sculptors, such as Shamuyarira, remain ever faithful.