VISUAL artist Dumisani Ndlovu has shown his artistic prowess by combining different issues faced by people in their day-to-day lives and present them in an art painting titled Burning Figure.
Ndlovu, who is a resident artist at Bulawayo’s National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ), said the reason behind the artwork was to motivate people that to every cloud there is a silver lining.
“As an artist, my desire is for people to find solutions through my artwork,” he said, adding that his recent artworks talked about challenges he witnessed people facing in life.
Ndlovu indicated that his Burning Figure drawing was inspired by what he observed on the streets as people sell different things for survival.
“This painting echoes that people should be bold when faced with life challenges and be able to move on with life. Fire gives energy, it burns and also purifies,” he said.
Ndlovu launched his art journey many years ago and is enjoying the creative ride that has come with a number of awards.
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His awards cabinet has the Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition Merit Award (1994), the 2019 PPC Imaginarium Sculpture (commendation) prize and a nomination for the Best Artwork at the prestigious National Arts and Merit Awards in 2008.
“There are many challenges I am facing in this industry. The art materials are hard and scarce to find locally and they are expensive too,” he told NewsDay Life & Style.
Also noting that inflation has been another headache for him, he said: “Faced with all these challenges, it is sad that when we value our artifacts for profits, they do not fetch the desired market price and we are sometimes forced to trade for less.”
Given his avid love and passion for playing with the brush, oil and paint, it only takes Ndlovu a week to finish a project.
He enjoys the freedom which comes with painting every piece.
“This industry is not an easy one as it comes with a lot of highs and lows, but if one is focused, it pays at the end of the day. My view on the Zimbabwean art industry is that it is big, but only needs support from the government and once this is done, we are good to go,” he added.
Ndlovu is a product of Bulawayo’s Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre, where he mastered the art of drawing from 1991 to 1993.
He has participated in numerous group exhibitions both locally and internationally.
He was part of the 2021 Artists Retreat Workshop themed Metamophids at Khami Lodge. In 1997, he participated at the International Exhibition of Graphics at Portland Art Museum in the United States.
In 2000, Ndlovu was also a participant at the eighth edition of the International Exhibition of Prints and Drawings in Grafinnova, Finland and five years later he attended the Zimbabwe Denmark Cultural Art Dialogue Workshop held at NGZ Bulawayo.
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