GUKOMATA

2025 | Oil on Canvas, Stretched on a Wood Frame

Gukomata — a Kinyarwanda word for the everyday contests that break out at communal water taps across rural Rwanda — captures a scene at once specific and universal. Painted from memory after witnessing a dispute in Nyamata, the work draws Muhirwa back to his own childhood: the long walk to the valley, the jostling over position, the unspoken rules of who yields and who holds their ground.

The figures press against each other in urgent, diagonal motion; the yellow jerrycans anchor the composition with a splash of color that feels almost cheerful against the tension. It is a painting about ordinary life — its friction, its humor, and its persistence.

See more artwork by Muhirwa Thierry