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.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: EXPO Chicago, First Floor Gallery Harare, Chicago, IL, USA
2022: Ziva Munhu Wako, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2022: Negotiating Chaos: It’s the way it shatters that matters (Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude and Pebofatso Mokoena), Simone Subal Gallery, New York City, NY, USA
2022: The Joys of Self-Delusion, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai
2021: Premonition of Civil Peace, Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis
2021: Grey Spaces, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: True Optimism (solo), Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
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.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: EXPO Chicago, First Floor Gallery Harare, Chicago, IL, USA
2022: Ziva Munhu Wako, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2022: Negotiating Chaos: It’s the way it shatters that matters (Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude and Pebofatso Mokoena), Simone Subal Gallery, New York City, NY, USA
2022: The Joys of Self-Delusion, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai
2021: Premonition of Civil Peace, Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis
2021: Grey Spaces, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: True Optimism (solo), Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
Amanda Mushate
Born in 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
At just twenty-seven, Mushate is establishing herself as a leading voice in contemporary Zimbabwean painting and an innovative young abstractionist with a growing international reputation. As a young woman and a new mother, in a male dominated field Mushate is also a role model and an advocate for women artists, making art and careers possible without sacrificing family. After completing her studies at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studio in 2016, Mushate was mentored by Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude to develop a vibrant and unique personal vision and modes of expression, presenting her first solo exhibition in 2018 with First Floor Gallery. Like any young person, Mushate is preoccupied with finding and shaping her place and path in this world, while negotiating the complexity of interpersonal relationships. Drawing her inspiration from music and from people around her but not wanting to be constrained by over figuration, she paints and sculpts her happiness and burdens, and the things that she takes time to visualize. “Art is a way for me to write about a ‘future’ for me and for all individuals for them to never be overshadowed by negative influences that divert us to our true purpose in life.” Mushate’s passionate, playful and mazelike canvases have been winning critical and international collector attention globally with works in important private collections in Cape Town, New York, Harare, London, Amsterdam and Paris.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Rudo Rwunouya Nemabasa with Tashinga Majiri, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2023: Latitudes Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023: Art Dubai, First Floor Gallery Harare, Dubai, UAE
2022: Paris Internationale, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2022: SCENORAMA (Gabi Ngcobo curator), Javett Art Centre - University of Pretoria, South Africa
2022: Shuviro Yamai, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Nguve ine Muridzi, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
At just twenty-seven, Mushate is establishing herself as a leading voice in contemporary Zimbabwean painting and an innovative young abstractionist with a growing international reputation. As a young woman and a new mother, in a male dominated field Mushate is also a role model and an advocate for women artists, making art and careers possible without sacrificing family. After completing her studies at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studio in 2016, Mushate was mentored by Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude to develop a vibrant and unique personal vision and modes of expression, presenting her first solo exhibition in 2018 with First Floor Gallery. Like any young person, Mushate is preoccupied with finding and shaping her place and path in this world, while negotiating the complexity of interpersonal relationships. Drawing her inspiration from music and from people around her but not wanting to be constrained by over figuration, she paints and sculpts her happiness and burdens, and the things that she takes time to visualize. “Art is a way for me to write about a ‘future’ for me and for all individuals for them to never be overshadowed by negative influences that divert us to our true purpose in life.” Mushate’s passionate, playful and mazelike canvases have been winning critical and international collector attention globally with works in important private collections in Cape Town, New York, Harare, London, Amsterdam and Paris.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Rudo Rwunouya Nemabasa with Tashinga Majiri, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2023: Latitudes Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023: Art Dubai, First Floor Gallery Harare, Dubai, UAE
2022: Paris Internationale, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2022: SCENORAMA (Gabi Ngcobo curator), Javett Art Centre - University of Pretoria, South Africa
2022: Shuviro Yamai, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Nguve ine Muridzi, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Wycliffe Mundopa
Born 1987 in Rusape, Zimbabwe. Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Wycliffe Mundopa is Zimbabwe’s leading painter and a passionate advocate for the lives of society’s most vulnerable, whose needs and dreams are often swept under the carpet by the powers that be. The pathos and pageantry of his works, also becomes an opportunity to see how painfully and vibrantly women’s lives reflect the conflicts of tradition and change of life in contemporary life in Zimbabwe. And avid student of the history of painting, Mundopa makes an urgent case for importance of presenting life of his country and his contemporaries with the same pathos and grandeur as the Dutch masters like Rubens and Rembrandt while situating himself as an heir to the grand tradition, Europeans jealously protect. For him, the drama of the lives of the ordinary people of Harare is of truly historic significance and should be honoured as such. More than that at a time when there is a renewed drive for exoticisation and selfexoticisation in African art, Wycliffe Mundopa pushes back with harsh honesty and brutal beauty of his figures.
Mundopa’s talent has attracted both critical attention and collector acclaim internationally since his early twenties with works in collections as far and wide as Norway, Thailand, Cameroon, USA, Hong Kong, Nigeria, France, Israel Australia, Kenya, Netherlands as well as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Cyclical Bloom (group exhibition), Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2023: Frieze London, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2023: Pachipamwe (We Meet Again)solo exhibition, Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2022: Echo curated by Serubiri Moses, Jenkins Johnson Projects, New York, USA
2021: Zva_nyadza, FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Wycliffe Mundopa is Zimbabwe’s leading painter and a passionate advocate for the lives of society’s most vulnerable, whose needs and dreams are often swept under the carpet by the powers that be. The pathos and pageantry of his works, also becomes an opportunity to see how painfully and vibrantly women’s lives reflect the conflicts of tradition and change of life in contemporary life in Zimbabwe. And avid student of the history of painting, Mundopa makes an urgent case for importance of presenting life of his country and his contemporaries with the same pathos and grandeur as the Dutch masters like Rubens and Rembrandt while situating himself as an heir to the grand tradition, Europeans jealously protect. For him, the drama of the lives of the ordinary people of Harare is of truly historic significance and should be honoured as such. More than that at a time when there is a renewed drive for exoticisation and selfexoticisation in African art, Wycliffe Mundopa pushes back with harsh honesty and brutal beauty of his figures.
Mundopa’s talent has attracted both critical attention and collector acclaim internationally since his early twenties with works in collections as far and wide as Norway, Thailand, Cameroon, USA, Hong Kong, Nigeria, France, Israel Australia, Kenya, Netherlands as well as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Cyclical Bloom (group exhibition), Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2023: Frieze London, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2023: Pachipamwe (We Meet Again)solo exhibition, Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2022: Echo curated by Serubiri Moses, Jenkins Johnson Projects, New York, USA
2021: Zva_nyadza, FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
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 eight 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 politics, history and power 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. Makaza’s works has received early critical and collector acclaim, taking part in the 2018 survey of Zimbabwean contemporary art at Zeitz MoCAA, winning the Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019, joining important institutional collections like that of Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech, Rollins College museum collection and noted private collections like Jorge Perez personal collection in Miami.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Untwisting the Fantasy, Galerie Poggi, Paris, France
2022: Kufa izuva rimwe, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: Instinct of great survivors, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
2021: Art Basel Miami Beach, Nova, First Floor Gallery Harare, Miami, USA
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, 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 eight 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 politics, history and power 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. Makaza’s works has received early critical and collector acclaim, taking part in the 2018 survey of Zimbabwean contemporary art at Zeitz MoCAA, winning the Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019, joining important institutional collections like that of Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech, Rollins College museum collection and noted private collections like Jorge Perez personal collection in Miami.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Untwisting the Fantasy, Galerie Poggi, Paris, France
2022: Kufa izuva rimwe, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: Instinct of great survivors, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
2021: Art Basel Miami Beach, Nova, First Floor Gallery Harare, Miami, USA
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, Zimbabwe
Zacharaha Magasa
Born 1988 Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
My work is driven by lines of direct and indirect dialogues of everyday life. I am interested in notions of socio-politics, environmental decay, territorial or land and cultural resistance. My stories normally emanate from my immediate surroundings, I pick dialogues from politically motivated gatherings, distractive systems of consumerism and environmental negligence practices. I believe language and communication is expressed in different ways depending on the intent of the message. Climate change is a message so is police brutality and all the conversations of life. Though I use different types of non-conventional materials rubber is the most prevalent because of its potency and association with slavery and oppression both in Africa and around the globe. In my method of work I use lines to draw figurative or symbolic forms, to represent movement but also drift in and out of figuration and are references to both contemporary political events as well as childhood memories. For me different materials and their capacity for manipulation are an opportunity to explore and develop ideas and carry meaning, like telephone lines, which move information from one place to the other or spheres which can be morph into figures, while recalling footballs, we wove out of plastic as children. Concurrently using rubber strips, which can be woven to mean speaks to Zimbabwean traditions and ideals of unity among people and unison with nature.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Latitudes Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022: Afamba Apota, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2021: Rain or Shine solo project - FNB Art Joburg Open City, First Floor Gallery Harare, P72 Johannesburg, South Africa
2021: ICTAF - MIART online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2020: Re: Zacharaha Magasa/Zanele Mutema, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: Thupelo workshop, Cape Town, South Africa
2012: Harare beyond words, Gallery H, Bangkok Thailand
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
My work is driven by lines of direct and indirect dialogues of everyday life. I am interested in notions of socio-politics, environmental decay, territorial or land and cultural resistance. My stories normally emanate from my immediate surroundings, I pick dialogues from politically motivated gatherings, distractive systems of consumerism and environmental negligence practices. I believe language and communication is expressed in different ways depending on the intent of the message. Climate change is a message so is police brutality and all the conversations of life. Though I use different types of non-conventional materials rubber is the most prevalent because of its potency and association with slavery and oppression both in Africa and around the globe. In my method of work I use lines to draw figurative or symbolic forms, to represent movement but also drift in and out of figuration and are references to both contemporary political events as well as childhood memories. For me different materials and their capacity for manipulation are an opportunity to explore and develop ideas and carry meaning, like telephone lines, which move information from one place to the other or spheres which can be morph into figures, while recalling footballs, we wove out of plastic as children. Concurrently using rubber strips, which can be woven to mean speaks to Zimbabwean traditions and ideals of unity among people and unison with nature.
Key Exhibitions and Career Highlights
2023: Latitudes Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022: Afamba Apota, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2021: Rain or Shine solo project - FNB Art Joburg Open City, First Floor Gallery Harare, P72 Johannesburg, South Africa
2021: ICTAF - MIART online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2020: Re: Zacharaha Magasa/Zanele Mutema, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: Thupelo workshop, Cape Town, South Africa
2012: Harare beyond words, Gallery H, Bangkok Thailand
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