Inspiration for the artist is equally varied. “I get inspired by all sorts of things,” she tells The Wick, “but it usually fluctuates between notes or pictures I have taken that once stood out to me, or a conversation/story/poem that I encounter.” The breadth of the artist’s influences is matched by the range of her practice. Amani first studied Fashion Design at FEDISA in South Africa before completing an MFA at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art, where she is currently working towards a DPhil. Across different mediums, her practice returns to questions of belonging, memory and how we understand ourselves.

Amani’s work has already reached an increasingly international stage. She is currently showing as part of the Tanzanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which runs until 22 November. She has also won the Foundwork Art Prize, the Ingram Prize and the Ashmolean Museum’s Vivien Leigh Prize, with further shortlisting for the Henrike Gross Award and Artangel Open.

For Amani, however, a career is built through the accumulated significance of each new step. “I feel very lucky and I think every achievement that carries me forward felt like a big one when it happened,” she says. “Getting into art school without a prior background in art; doing my first interview; winning my first art prize, and now showing in Venice as part of the Tanzanian pavilion…”

Her Champion, London-based artist Tim A Shaw MBE, first met Amani through Hospital Rooms, the arts and mental health charity he co-founded with curator Niamh White. Their relationship began when Amani applied to work with the organisation as a curator, and Shaw remembers quickly recognising her potential:

“I first met Valerie when she applied to be a curator with us at Hospital Rooms. We absolutely loved working with her as a curator on our projects, but it wasn’t too long before she was being offered residencies and exhibitions left, right and centre. We knew Valerie was going to go on to do exceptional things, and we wanted to support her in any way we could.

We shortlisted her for the Dentons Art Prize, included work by her in our recent exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth and Victoria Miro, and then she worked with us as a commissioned artist on a Hospital Rooms project at a mental health rehabilitation ward in Kent, transforming a bland clinical space into somewhere that was deeply thoughtful and offered another view of the world and visual stimulation.”

Their work together has continued through exhibitions and the later Hospital Rooms commission in Kent. Shaw is particularly taken by Amani’s ability to work across materials and the distinctive artistic language she has developed.

“Seeing her performances, residencies, working towards her PhD at Oxford, and now representing Tanzania at the Venice Biennale has been such a joy. Valerie is so resourceful with materials and playful in her approach to making, and has a unique voice and artistic language – it is only right to see her get so much recognition and respect, and I’m here for it and will keep cheering her on and telling everyone I know about her work.”