FINE ART · HARARE, ZIMBABWEEvery dream
has a journey.
Portraits of hoping, striving and working, and of the moment you finally get to enjoy the fruit.
Costa Juta in the studio, Harare · Behind: Tariro · NokutendaARTIST STATEMENTMy work lives inside the journey of a dream: the hoping, the fighting, the working, and finally, the enjoying.
I paint people at every stage of that journey. A child carrying a red balloon as if it might float away. A boxer resting between rounds. A woman bent over patient, repetitive work. A grandmother tasting ice cream with no one to answer to. Some are still reaching; others have arrived.
I place them against wide, open fields of colour, the room a dream needs to grow. Many titles are in Shona, because the language of striving is personal. I build each piece the way a dream is built: layer by layer, with patience, until a quiet idea stands in front of you, real.
THE COLLECTION · 20 WORKSThe journey, in three parts
IHoping
Where every dream begins: a vision held quietly, a first step taken, a balloon carried carefully. These works sit in the moment before anything is certain.
Chiono Changu
$900
My vision
A crowd presses in, and one figure turns his back to us. Chiono Changu is about holding on to a private vision while everyone around you looks elsewhere.
Oil on canvas · 100 × 165 cmTariro
$650
Hope
A lone figure climbs a ladder lashed to a hand cart, reaching upward against a field of red. Hope, as something you build and push.
Oil on canvas · 84.5 × 119 cmChishuwo
$350 · WORK IN PROGRESS
Wish
A small girl walks toward us holding a red balloon. In a wide field of pale blue it is the only colour, a dream carried carefully, close to hand.
Oil on canvas · 70.5 × 70.5 cm
Nokutenda
$400
With gratitude
A small rider in an oversized helmet pedals forward on a red bicycle. The courage of first attempts.
Oil on canvas · 49.4 × 84 cmMusikana Mufaro
$60
Joyful girl
A girl mid-laugh, her hair twisted upward as if it is reaching too. Joy before anyone has told her what is impossible.
Digital pencil drawing · 29.7 × 42 cmIIStriving
The long middle: the fighting and the working. Hands busy, faces weathered, people leaning on each other. The part of the journey no one sees.
Champion
$400
A boxer rests between rounds, gloves heavy on his knees. The title names what he is fighting for, not yet what he holds.
Oil on canvas · 44.5 × 77 cmTswanda reTsungiriro
$500 · WORK IN PROGRESS
A woman bent over her craft, absorbed in patient, repetitive work, the quiet hours where most dreams are really built.
Oil on canvas · 77.5 × 107.5 cmNzira
$350 · WORK IN PROGRESS
The path
A father and daughter walk hand in hand; she looks up at him. Some of the journey is walked for someone else, and with them.
Oil on canvas · 62 × 62 cm
Tiri Pamwe
$60
We are together
Three faces emerge from deep charcoal shadow, close enough to lean on each other. Nobody gets there alone.
Charcoal on paper · 29.7 × 42 cmGogo Wisdom
$150
A grandmother in white before a gold and orange halo. Wisdom as what remains after the fight, hard-won and luminous.
Oil on canvas · 38 × 34 cmAmbuya
$60
Grandmother
A grandmother in a headwrap, every line of her face earned. A study of a life of work.
Charcoal on paper · 29.7 × 42 cm
aSekuru
$60
Grandfather
A grandfather’s face carved in light and shadow: the weathered map of someone who kept going.
Charcoal on paper · 29.7 × 42 cmIIIThe Fruits
Arrival. Floating, laughing, tasting the ice cream. These are portraits of people enjoying what they worked for, because the fruit is the point.
Mapudzi Angu
$2,100
Field of dreams
An astronaut sits in a field of ripe pumpkins. The far-off dream and the harvest of home, held in the same frame.
Oil on canvas · 165 × 165 cmRunyararo
$350 · WORK IN PROGRESS
Calm
Arms folded, gaze lifted, a woman in yellow polka dots sits against saturated blue: composed, unhurried, fully arrived.
Oil pastel on canvas · 62 × 62 cmWherever I Go
$1,000
A figure in a spacesuit drifts across open water on an inflatable. Ambition and ease, in the same suit.
Oil on canvas · 100 × 165 cm
Keya Keya
$850
No care in the world
Sunglasses on, drink in hand, nowhere to be. The moment you finally let yourself enjoy it.
Oil on canvas · 118 × 120 cmRugare
$750
Peace
An elder sits at ease before a burning orange sun. The rest that comes after the work is done.
Oil and acrylic on canvas · 133 × 102 cmNyasha
$300 · WORK IN PROGRESS
Grace
A grandmother in white floats on a pink ring, glass raised. Grace, received and enjoyed.
Oil on canvas · 50 × 50 cm
Gelato Sawhira
$300 · WORK IN PROGRESS
Two friends on a bench, ice creams in hand, matching shades. Sweetness, shared.
Oil on canvas · 54 × 53 cmGogo Gutsikana
$400
A grandmother in dungarees takes a slow bite of ice cream. It is never too late to taste it.
Acrylic and oil on canvas · 44.5 × 77 cmWorks marked Work in progress are between 60% and 90% complete. Final photographs will follow, and they can be reserved now. All prices in US dollars.
PROCESSIn the studio
Every piece is built by hand in Harare, layer by layer: oil, acrylic and pastel, worked over weeks.
ABOUT THE ARTISTCosta Juta
Costa Juta is a portrait artist based in Harare, Zimbabwe, working in oil, acrylic, charcoal, digital media and photography, often blending them in a single piece. His work follows the journey of a dream: the hope that starts it, the work and struggle that carry it, and the joy of finally living in it.
For Costa, art is both a refuge and a challenge. Each piece begins as a quiet idea and is shaped layer by layer, with focus, patience and problem-solving, until the finished work begins to speak back.
Oil & acrylic
Large-scale canvases
Charcoal
Portrait studies on paper
Digital
Drawing & photography
COMMISSIONSYour story, painted.
A personal portrait of someone you love, or a moment you worked hard for. Tell me about it, and we'll decide together on size, medium and timeline.
Collect, commission,
or just say hello.
Based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
EMAILPHONE / WHATSAPPINSTAGRAMTIKTOK© 2026 Costa Juta · All works copyright the artist