Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude

Born in 1988 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Born and raised in Mbare, Harare and Zimbabwe’s most vibrant and notorious ghetto, Nyaude works against the sweeping identity, which has been defined for Zimbabweans by the voice of the state and domestic and international media. His images oscillated between figuration, abstraction and hallucination, drawing from the restless energy of his neighbourhood and its youth, in a country, where more than 70% of the population is under the age of 30. Living on the edge between survival and chaos has been a call to poetry, swinging between brutal and sentimental but almost invariably cynical and satirical. His gesturally rendered effigies of traditional proverbs and poignant vernacular idioms, defy characterisation other than the bursting drive to attain human dignity and quality of life that frequently appears beyond the reach of dreams. Nyaude’s work has achieved wide international critical and collector recognition, in 2018 he presented a major body of work in the USA as part of Songs for Sabotage at the New Museum Triennial. Nyaude’s workis in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (Macaal), Rubell Family Collection, Jorge Perez personal collection and numerous notable private collections.
Recent exhibitions
• 2021 Agency & Intent (Richard Butler Bowdon, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude & Helen Teede), Nomad Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
• 2020 True Optimism – solo exhibition, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
• 2020 Poetry of Rebels, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude - Song Yuanuyan, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
• 2019 Night & Day - Day & Night - Mundopa/Nyaude, First Floor Gallery Harare/GNYP gallery, Berlin
• 2019 Defying the Narratives, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, USA
• 2018 Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi - Sa Bassa Blanca Museum, Yannick & Ben Jokober Foundation, Mallorca, Spain
• 2018 Songs for Sabotage, New Museum Triennial, New York, USA
• 2017 Mazino, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
Helen Teede

Born in 1988, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Helen Teede (b. 1988) is a visual artist from Zimbabwe, working primarily in painting. She has recently returned to Zimbabwe from Italy havingcompleted her Masters in Visual Art at IUAV University of Venice with 110/110 and Honours. Her thesis, “Phenomenology of Painting as anIntersectional Medium” reflects on storytelling through painting as a medium that comprises ongoing formations, relying on situated knowledge and material thinking as ways of knowing that rejects ideas of total, objective knowledge, and embraces the importance of process, curiosity, failure and the acceptance of paradox. She has worked as an artist since 2013, after completing her BFA at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, joining First Floor Gallery Harare in 2015 and participating in numerous group exhibitions, including a survey of contemporary Zimbabwean painting at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in 2018, a number of two person-shows, as well as five solo exhibitions locally and internationally. She currently lives in Harare, working as an artist and researcher with First Floor Gallery Harare.
Recent Exhibitions
•2021 Artemisia, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
•2021 Mirror Mirror, South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare
•2020-2021 Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
•2019 Traffic Festival Delle Anime Gentili: San Lorenzo in Campo, Italy.
•2019 Home Affairs, Daor Contemporary: Cape Town, South Africa
•2019 The Harare Fauves, Alon Segev Gallery: Tel Aviv, Israel.
•2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare: Cape Town, South Africa
•2018 Without Breaking Anything, Matter Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
•2018 Five Bobh. Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA), Cape Town. South Africa.
•2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair. First Floor Gallery Harare, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
•2018 Next Level. First Floor Gallery Harare, in Harare, Zimbabwe.
•2018 Cape Town Art Fair. First Floor Gallery Harare, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Tapfuma Gutsa

Born in 1956,
Lives and works in Mrewa, Zimbabwe
Gutsa is unequivocally the most revered and beloved figure of contemporary art in Zimbabwean art. A pioneer, who began his career as a stone sculptor studying under Cornelius Manguma at the Driefontein Mission School, which produced such luminaries like Nicholas Mukomberanwa and Joseph Ndandarika, he broke away from the purist stone tradition to look inwards to Zimbabwean indigenous art traditions, materials from clay and weaving to wood and horns and methods in a way that was a break through not only for Zimbabwean contemporary art but also internationally.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Damba Nepwere, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2015 Mutations and Permutations, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2011 Zimbabwe National Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2006 Tapfuma Gutsa, October Gallery, London, UK
2003 The Power, The Object- The Object, The Power, Alliance Francaise, Harare, Zimbabwe
1997 The Future, National Gallery Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 Dream No Small Dream: Celebrating 40 Years of the Transvangarde, October Gallery, London, UK
2015 Basket Case II (Cristine Eyene Curator), National Gallery of Zimbabwe Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2008 Angaza Afrika, October Gallery, London, UK
2007 Voyages; Crossing the Lake of Fire, October Gallery, London, UK Uncomfortable Truths, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Mavis Tauzeni

Born 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Mavis Tauzeni is a subtle talent. Her work in print and mixed media moves one to mediation and re ection of one’s inner self in the same way as Tauzeni herself re ects on her inner world. Speaking unapologetically from a woman’s perspective, she constantly re ects on the mutable relationship between a woman, her potential and her actual in daily life and through the life cycle. “I feel that women in particular relate the physical with the spiritual and emotional in a uniquely powerful way, being the givers of life and the nurtures of others. The physical strength is integral to the spiritual importance.” With quiet con dence and gentle poetry, Tauzeni asserts the right of the new generation of women in Zimbabwe to claim a place in their society on their own terms.
Selected Recent Exhibitions:
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare: Cape Town, South Africa
2020-2021 Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
2019 AKAA 2019, First Floor Gallery Harare, France
2019 On A Clear Day You Can See A Future, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2018 To My Unborn Child solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2017 Another Antipodes, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017 Hello Harare: Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016 I am because you are: group exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016 Harare: Mwandiambira + Tauzeni + Teede, Hazard, Johannesburg, South Africa
Pebofatso Mokoena

Born 1993, Johannesburg, South Africa
Lives and works, Johannesburg, South Africa
Emerging from early practice in printmaking, Mokoena’s painting practice is formally underscored by precise mark making and division of space, while exploring ideas around micro and macro in scale of politics, emotions and environment. Dealing with issues surrounding technology, family and communication and the dynamic link and analogies between macro and micro environments, local and global, cosmic and microbial, his works offer us a space for reflection, which rare and worth cherishing in the hyper-charged environment of contemporary South Africa. Immediately resonant across cultures and social divides, Mokoena’s work has received early recognition and support, both and internationally, with awards and exhibitions in regions as disparate as Iran and USA, Zimbawe and Hong Kong, as well as in South Africa.
Education:
•2020 - BA Honours Fine Art (with distinction) – Wits University
Solo Exhibitions
•2020 - Internal Probes - David Krut Projects, Johannesburg
Selected Group Exhibitions and Art Fairs
•2020 - PRIZM Miami Art Fair - First Floor Gallery (online)
•2020 - ArtJoburg Art Fair - First Floor Gallery (online)
•2020 - ARCOLisboa Art Fair – First Floor Gallery (online)
Awards
•2020 - Wits Young Artist Award Merit Winner
•2019 Emerging Painting Invitational pan-African emerging painting award, finalist exhibition, Harare, Zimbabwe
•2018 - Inside Jobs - Bag Factory, Johannesburg
•2019 - Songs of Sankofa, Bouvy Enkobo/Pebofatso Mokoena, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
•2017 - The Pebofatso Experience - Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
•2016 - Between South Africa and Iran - NoMans Gallery - Tehran
•2016 - Beasts of No Nation - Hazard Gallery - Johannesburg
•2015 - Defining The Narrative - Gallery MOMO Cape Town
•2014 - South African Voices: A New Generation of Printmakers - Washington DC
Troy Makaza

Born in 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Having specialized in painting in art school but always interested in form and texture, Makaza decided to develop his own hybrid medium which would enable him to unite his artistic goals. After experimenting with various materials, Makaza arrived at silicone a material which can be cast, painted with as well as woven and tied. Over the past six years Makaza’s works progressively developed as an opportunity to speak both viscerally and philosophically to the issues Makaza finds compelling as a young Zimbabwean concerned with both politics and their impact on daily lives of ordinary people as well as a globally engaged millennial. Resonating with traditional modes like weaving and tapestry but unequivocally contemporary, Makaza’s works articulate the conversation of what African and uniquely Zimbabwean contemporary can be – a paradigm internationally engaging and locally compelling. At only 26, Makaza’s works have already received critical and collector acclaim, winning the Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019 and with participation in institutional exhibitions such as Five Bhob at Zeitz MoCAA in Cape Town and Welcome Home at Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech.
Education
• 2015: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
• 2014: Green Shoots (NGZ Visual Art Certificate Graduate exhibition), National Gallery of Zimbabwe,
• 2014: Young Artists, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Selected Collections
Fondazione Fiera Milano, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Tiroche De Leon Collection, Jorge Perez Collectiona
Selected Solo Exhibitions
• 2021 Age of Displacement (May-June)– First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
• 2019 Tomorrows/Today (art fair prize winner) Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
• 2018: Forever Neverland Solo, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
• 2016: Bound Together solo, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Selected Group Exhibitions
• 2021: Travels with Herodotus (Domenico de Chirico curator), Galleria Bianconi, Milan, Italy
• 2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
• 2020 Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
• 2020: ARCOLisboa Online, First Floor Gallery Harare
• 2019: Welcome Home, Museum of Modern African Art al Maaden, Macaal, Marrakesh, Morocco
• 2019: Kubatana – Contemporary African Art Survey, Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
• 2018: THE BLACK SPHINX II, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
• 2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe Another Antipodes
Anne Zanele Mutema

Born 1988, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Anne Zanele Mutema, a conceptual installation artist who is preoccupied with ideas of space, memory and phenomenology. Having graduated from National Gallery Visual Art Studio in 2010, while concurrently studying cinematography at the Zimbabwe Institute of Photography and Cinematography in 2009, Mutema spent a number of years trying to find a bridge between visual art, material practice and her interest in time based media. Through experimentation, she arrived at a unique installation approach. Creating immersive installation, she develops a dialogue between the audience and objects, focused on the idea of an Event, defined as a phenomenon located at a single point in time. Searching to create, capture and recreate Events in the context of self, culture and history is a process, project and quest for Mutema. Mutema’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, achieving awards and selected for participation in international festivals. After taking time out to build a family, Mutema, makes an important and ground-breaking return to practice, with ‘Systemic Necropolis’.
Recent exhibitions include:
2022- Ranezuro Rangu Ngariziye, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020 – Re: Zacharaha Magasa/Zanele Mutema, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2014 - Unchartered Territories-Voices In Colour, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2014 - Harare International Festival of the Arts, No Limits exhibition, Harare, Zimbabwe
2014 - RAVY Festival -Galerie d’Art Contemporain, Cameroon
2014 - Woman at the Top-National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
2013 - Afiriperfoma Biennale, Harare, Zimbabwe
2013 - In Black and White-First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
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