"For Chabwera, painting is an opportunity to turn inwards and reflect on the mind, body, and self. She then gradually externalizes those reflections through a singular piece or series.

Movement and narrative were at the heart of Chabwera’s most recent solo exhibition, Etheric Bodies: Portraits of the Sacred Self, curated by Angela N. Carroll at NoMüNoMü gallery (which ended May 16th). In addition to six large-scale Tapestry paintings, themselves packed with visual dynamism, the show included workshops and events centered around moving the body. For the duration of the exhibition, NoMüNoMü became a venue for yoga sessions, communal concerts, dancing, and guided meditations.

These activities, Chabwera says, collectively function as the seventh painting she’d intended to make as part of the Tapestry series. The artist considers the works portraits or “embodiments” of the seven Hindu chakras (energy centers believed to be present within each human’s nonphysical or etheric body):"

- Isa Gold