Moisés Ernesto Matsinhe Mafuiane, also known as Butcheca, is a self-taught artist born in 1978 in Maputo where he currently lives and works.

The Mozambique-born artist started his career in the early 90’s passing through the workshops of Masters Fernando Romão and Naguib and becoming a member of Núcleo de Arte in 1997 where he has been exhibiting his work regularly.

Since his first solo exhibition in 2002 he has been showing his work in several cultural spaces in Maputo, namely at the Instituto Camões Gallery, at Fortaleza de Maputo, at the Núcleo de Arte, at the Museu Galeria Chissano and at the CCFM – Centro Cultural Franco-Mozambino where he held his last Solo Exhibition entitled “Chauffeur – O Driver do Butcheca” in 2009.

He has also exhibited his work in Portugal, Germany, Angola, South Africa, Japan and Tanzania. He is represented in various public and private collections both in Mozambique and abroad.
Since 2015 he has been a lecturer in Fine Arts and Painting at the French School Lycée Gustave Eiffel in Maputo.

His art speaks through paintings and sculpture and his works carry mystery and arouse curiosity. In Butcheca’s vision, visible beings are hidden behind the masks. Faces are a mask, the thought we express is a mask, the first impression we have of a person is a mask.

In 2015 he won the 2nd prize in the XIII edition of the TDM Biennale and was selected in an international competition for the creation of the graphic image of the 2014 edition of the Sukiyaki Meets the World Festival in Japan.
In the same year, he also benefited from the Moving Africa program of the Goethe Institut to visit the Dak’Arte Biennale in Senegal.