Chikawe hails from the south of Tanzania, his father was a teacher therefore they moved a lot. Evarist was born in Dodoma (Tanzania’s capital city). He attended a German Catholic Missionary School called Ndanda Mission, where his sister also worked. Chikawe believes he owes his sister for cultivating his passion. She would often bring him art supplies fuelling his interest for art.

Devoted to his roots, Chikawe’s paintings constantly identify with Tanzanian culture and traditions. He mostly engages himself in figurative human being drawings because he believes life is about people. Figures make people understand his subjects easily. Although day to day his style keeps on changing but the idea of figurative drawings remains constant.

His art depicts and appreciates women in terms of their womanhood, the vitality of their role in the household as well as in society, their dreams and aspiration, as well as the burdens they sometimes carry. Through his figurative art, Chikawe portrays women with big bodies to illustrate the power of women and the respect they deserve from men and society as a whole.

Chikawe is intune with his intuition and that is the source of his creativity. Life is all about change; art is a growing subject that has no limits. Chikawe derives his happiness from other people’s happiness. With an infectious personality to turn any frown into a smile, he takes joy in the morphing of happiness. This transformation can be seen through his work as most of his pieces balance the good in the bad, and the bad in good.

He encourages the impossible to be possible.