ZIMBABWE’S artists are holding their own, exhibiting at FNB Art Joburg, the continent's longest running contemporary art fair.
The fair runs from September 6 to 9 and is a platform for curatorial and commercial interventions that present the best in contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora.
This year First Floor Gallery (FFG) proudly raises the national flag by showing the work of celebrated Zimbabwean artists, Amanda Mushate, Grace Nyahangare, Troy Makhaza, current FNB Art Prize laureate Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Again Chokuwamba, new addition Victor Nyakauru and South African Peabofatso Mokoena. In the manner of blue-chip galleries, the minimal display of artworks is a show of confidence in the bankability of the artists who have been collecting accolades and drawing praise internationally. Aside from current golden boy Nyaude, Makaza and Nyakauru were part of a well-received Zimbabwe pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
At the VIP Preview, the FFG hub was awash with excited visitors who engaged in deep conversations with gallery founders, Marcus Gora and Valerie Kabov and their team. Recently appointed National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director Napoleon Nyanhi was one of the VIPs hobnobbing with Gora and Kabov.
After last years’ buzz, visitors will obviously miss Village Unhu who are absent this year.
Art, however, is not defined by nationality and artists are not confined by political boundaries. Just as Mokena has found a home at FFG, South African galleries have featured prominent Zimbabwean artists.
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At Goodman Gallery, Misheck Masamvus’s explosive Verdant whose riotous colours might portend a thriving and blossoming.
Kudzanai Chiurai’s We Live in Silence VII also at Goodman Gallery is a great selection from the original exhibition described thus: “The exhibition also repositions the female role in recent struggle histories — recasting the lead character as a woman in the black liberation narrative to challenge the gender bias inherent to such narratives, which tend to pit a black male as the victim of colonisation and, hence, the liberator of the post-colony.”
In the new Gif section head for photography, Calvin Dondo is presented by FFG with a series of photographs from his recent solo exhibition “Tales of Resistance.” The images are part of a 20-year project in which Dondo has been documenting the lives and emotional fortitude of Tonga people. His carefully framed shots deliver an incisive commentary.
The exhibition is supported by a series of video documentaries about the Tonga and the story of the construction of Kariba Dam, told from different perspectives, ensuring that the history of the Tonga people is not forgotten and their culture is respected and preserved.
After seven years of hanging his brushes to concentrate on sculpture, Wallen Mapondera represented by SMAC Gallery has two paintings Gomba Remarara and Chigaro changu, asi kwete nekuda kwangu. The two pieces are engaging and thought provoking, by a pair of feet that are horizontally suspended from the former and a face that looks impaled in the apparatus depicted in the later. The subversive titles are open to many possibilities.
Portia Zvavahera’s Tauya Naye at Stevenson Gallery is a delightful translation of the traditional wedding song referenced in the title.
Over at Blank Projects, Kresiah Mukwazhi’s Bad girls go everywhere made out of bra straps on canvas was among the highlights for the media tour. The amount of time Mukwazhi would have taken to collect and carefully attach the straps to the canvas is a reminder of how seriously she approaches and meditates on the feminist themes embodied in her work.
Also at Blank Projects Shaun Motsi’s oil on linen painting Untitled II might be unrevealing in its title but could be especially tantalising to some viewers as it appears to be a giant square of nut-studded chocolate. It inspires an eager prospect to delve beyond the apparent simplicity.
FNB Art Joburg has played an important role in developing and sustaining a commercial industry with a strong focus on quality for the past 17 years.