Award-winning artist Chengetai Sarltex Chinanga has urged up-and-coming artists to be patient as it takes time to harvest the fruits of their labour.
The veteran artist has been in the industry for 25 years, stunning the world through abstract and figurative hard and soft stone figurines.
The artist, who specialises in stone, metal sculptures on 3-dimension work and painting, said the bulk of his creative ingenious works depicted love expressions for the sole reason that love overpowers hate.
“My future lies in my works and I encourage all up-and-coming artists not to lose hope because it may not reward today but later on, one will reap the good fruits sown through hard work,” Chinanga told NewsDay Life & Style.
The visual artist challenged newbies in the craft to emulate veterans in the industry who have achieved a lot with minimal resources and sharpened their artisanship over a long period.
“Art gets better with age and like in other industries there are challenges faced and some are hard to tackle while others may never be solved. As an artist like the river you will always find a way-out of stoppages and this means that an artist is not lockable,” he said.
Chinanga is a household name in international galleries and museums in Alaska America, Germany, Netherlands, Hungary and China. He is grateful to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe for its unwavering support to the arts industry.
“I have received several awards since 2007 at provincial and national levels,” Chinanga said.
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He said the closure of the National Arts Gallery of Zimbabwe in Mutare “is a blow to the visual arts industry and there is nothing we can do politically or independently except collecting our works and moving on”.
“We are appealing to our local authority in Mutare and Manicaland at large to help in constructing creative spaces which include selling and exhibition stands,” Chinanga said.
The veteran artist was at the National Gallery of Mutare on the day of its closure.
After a long flirtation, he asked for a last memory picture with the gallery officials and posted it on the Shaurayi Tione Group.
Chinanga told NewsDay Life & Style that he had attained 11 awards through the National Arts Gallery of Zimbabwe in Mutare. The awards and nominations include nominations from the National Arts Merit Awards, MANISA and certificates of appreciation from the Mabvazuva Visual Arts Association.
This alone was good enough to justify how the gallery was to over five hundred artists in Mutare and Manicaland at large, he said.
The artist is not resting on his laurels, declaring that he will continue working hard and has plans to mobilise resources to provide a place where people can conveniently buy or view his creative works.
He said galleries and museums were very important entities in gaining the trust of audience for the marketing and distribution of arts and crafts. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Mutare had visual artist creative Sajeni (Paidamoyo Edgar Sajeni) a Zimbabwean hybrid artist, semiotic, designer and educator as the last exhibitor.
His Black Narratives Exhibition (The Protagonist) was a presentation of work that speaks to the history of great people both on the African continent and diaspora, the highs and the lows, the heights to which we have withstood all hardships for millennia and now we find ourselves in an ever-changing global village.
“My hope is that the border city [Mutare] will embrace its roots from a cultural and historical context and start indepth investments in the creative sector,” Sajeni said.
“It's strategically positioned as a tourist and heritage city and very soon as an industrial hub. This shall provide momentum and leverage in setting up thriving businesses. Art is a business that needs a united front.”
