Peter Kananji was born in 1968 in Tafara, a high-density community near Harare. In the 1980s Tapfuma Gutsa, an artist who had earned an international reputation, opened a sculpting workshop and studio in Tafara and went in search of local young talent. Peter, who had been working with stone from childhood, was invited to join the studio at the age of 17. He says it was an exceptionally stimulating environment for a young artist.

For many years Peter divided his time between a home studio in Rusape and working in Harare as a senior assistant to Joe Mutasa, one of Zimbabwe’s most internationally celebrated sculptors. In 2009 he returned to Tafara.

Peter, whose family originates from Malawi, carves very much in the style of Malawian wood carvers. Facial features on his sculptures are refined and necks elongated to signify dignity and beauty. He enjoys working with the harder stones, Springstone, Lepidolite and Kwe-Kwe Fruit Serpentines, in particular, afford him the challenge he seeks.

“My work has changed over the years. I see more and more ways of using the tools to create the feeling in my sculptures,” Peter explains. His source of inspiration is the African people, women and children in particular. It’s a theme, he says, he will never tire of, because there are so many stories to tell.

Peter’s sculptures have sold to collectors and galleries in South Africa, Germany, Holland, Australia, the UK, the US and Canada.

ZimArt has represented Peter in Canada since 2003.