Helen Teede
Biography
Born 1988 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Lives and works between Venice, Italy and Harare, Zimbabwe.
Born in Zimbabwe and having studied in Cape Town and Florence, Helen Teede has been dividing her time between Venice and Harare having moved to Venice in 2017 for her Masters in Visual Art at IUAV University of Venice, Italy in 2020. Her research and thesis explored paint and painting as a medium and action to develop non-linear kind of storytelling.
Living between Italy and Zimbabwe for the past five years, she has become increasingly preoccupied with the role of place in the creative process. Dividing her studio between two cities, one land-locked and one almost overwhelmed by water, two continents, and two hemispheres with dramatic impact on perception colour and physical space. This binary has demanded a particular response in each space to retain integrity of a painting being a living medium tangibly and permanently connected to the world.
In this way place becomes a way of asserting the reality in context with intellectual human made mythologies and apprehensions making the canvas a space for reconciliation of myth and nature through the prism of history.
The Venice works float lightly on the canvas, privileging drawing and figure, in a city in which human presence in the environment is radically asserted conversely the Harare works settle heavily on the canvas, rich with impasto and explosive verdant hues that speak to a more prominent assertion of the natural world onto the human.
In this space the coexistence of fluid, queer and paradoxical ways of knowing, drawing on ecofeminism, phenomenology, mythology and art history becomes possible. The natural landscape becomes a generous and expansive stage for visual narratives, populated by bodies and storytelling equally ancient and forever urgent. In 2023 Teede was awarded the Tracey Emin inaugural artist residency in Margate.
Education and Training
Exhibitions
2023: Cocoon - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: See You Through It (Group Exhibition), The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, works from the Collection of Brad & Gabrielle Schuller, Worcester, MA, USA
2022: In the Zone (Group Exhibition), Alice Folker Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022: Sovereign Art Prize finalist exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Ubuntu, collective exhibition, (Africanah Art Foundation Curator) WTO biannual meeting, Geneva, Switzerland
2021: Running – The New Contemporary (Will Wang Curator) Qingdao Art Museum, Shanghai, PRC
2021: Artemisia Nova, Paris Internationale, Paris, France
2021: I Draw Therefore I Think, South South online. First Floor Gallery Harare
2021: House Parté (Carlye Packer curator), Palm Springs, USA
2021: Mundopa, Makaza, Rizhi, Teede (Brandy Carstens, Tong Advisory curators), Tong Advisory Soho Salon, New York, USA
2021: Allegory & Intent (Butler Bowdon, Nyaude, Teede), Nomad Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2021: Artemisia - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2019: Bare Limbs - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teed), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2019: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Cape Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, cape Town, South Africa
2017: FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017: AKAA Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2017: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2017: “Tomorrow’s Today” Cape Town Art Fair special project, First Floor Gallery Harare/Showcase Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2016: “Harare: Mwandiambira+Tauzeni+Teede” Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: FNB Joburg Art Fair 2016, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: I am because you are - Group Show, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: “It is without.” Solo Show, First Floor Gallery: Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: "Excerpts", Solo Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E.
2015: "The Material Presence of the Past", Solo Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2015: "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark", Solo Show,. Amanzi: Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: "Waste no Waste, Trash is Treasure", Group Show, Italian Ambassador's Residence: Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: "Chimuti, Pepa, Dombo" (Wood, Paper, Rock) . Group Show. Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2014: "IndustrArt", Group Show. Nigel Joscelyne: Harare, Zimbabwe
2014: "Modern Painting", Group Show, Kalk Bay Modern: Cape Town, South Africa
2014: "Scripts of Our Unspoken Words", Group Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2013: "Greatest Hits of 2012", Group Show, AVA Gallery: Cape Town, South Africa
2012: "Mistakes", Group Show, 50 Canterbury Street: Cape Town, South Africa
2012: "GRAD", Group Show, Michaelis School of Fine Art: Cape Town, South Africa
2008: FUA Graduate Show, Florence University of the Arts: Florence, Italy.
2008: "Dialoghi Muti", Group Show, Florence University of the Arts: Florence, Italy.
2008: “We Still have the Sun”, Solo Show, Richard Rennie: Harare, Zimbabwe
Publications and Solo Exhibition Catalogues
Born 1988 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Lives and works between Venice, Italy and Harare, Zimbabwe.
Born in Zimbabwe and having studied in Cape Town and Florence, Helen Teede has been dividing her time between Venice and Harare having moved to Venice in 2017 for her Masters in Visual Art at IUAV University of Venice, Italy in 2020. Her research and thesis explored paint and painting as a medium and action to develop non-linear kind of storytelling.
Living between Italy and Zimbabwe for the past five years, she has become increasingly preoccupied with the role of place in the creative process. Dividing her studio between two cities, one land-locked and one almost overwhelmed by water, two continents, and two hemispheres with dramatic impact on perception colour and physical space. This binary has demanded a particular response in each space to retain integrity of a painting being a living medium tangibly and permanently connected to the world.
In this way place becomes a way of asserting the reality in context with intellectual human made mythologies and apprehensions making the canvas a space for reconciliation of myth and nature through the prism of history.
The Venice works float lightly on the canvas, privileging drawing and figure, in a city in which human presence in the environment is radically asserted conversely the Harare works settle heavily on the canvas, rich with impasto and explosive verdant hues that speak to a more prominent assertion of the natural world onto the human.
In this space the coexistence of fluid, queer and paradoxical ways of knowing, drawing on ecofeminism, phenomenology, mythology and art history becomes possible. The natural landscape becomes a generous and expansive stage for visual narratives, populated by bodies and storytelling equally ancient and forever urgent. In 2023 Teede was awarded the Tracey Emin inaugural artist residency in Margate.
Education and Training
- March 2023 - September 2024: Tracey Emin Art Residency
- 2020: Laurea Magistrale in Arti Visive (Masters in Visual Art), University IUAV, Venice, Italy. with 110/110 and Honours.
- 2013: Bachelor of Arts Honours in English Studies, with First Class at University of Cape Town, South Africa.
- 2012: Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Exhibitions
2023: Cocoon - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: See You Through It (Group Exhibition), The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, works from the Collection of Brad & Gabrielle Schuller, Worcester, MA, USA
2022: In the Zone (Group Exhibition), Alice Folker Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2022: Sovereign Art Prize finalist exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Ubuntu, collective exhibition, (Africanah Art Foundation Curator) WTO biannual meeting, Geneva, Switzerland
2021: Running – The New Contemporary (Will Wang Curator) Qingdao Art Museum, Shanghai, PRC
2021: Artemisia Nova, Paris Internationale, Paris, France
2021: I Draw Therefore I Think, South South online. First Floor Gallery Harare
2021: House Parté (Carlye Packer curator), Palm Springs, USA
2021: Mundopa, Makaza, Rizhi, Teede (Brandy Carstens, Tong Advisory curators), Tong Advisory Soho Salon, New York, USA
2021: Allegory & Intent (Butler Bowdon, Nyaude, Teede), Nomad Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2021: Artemisia - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2019: Bare Limbs - Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teed), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2019: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Cape Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, cape Town, South Africa
2017: FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017: AKAA Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2017: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2017: “Tomorrow’s Today” Cape Town Art Fair special project, First Floor Gallery Harare/Showcase Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2016: “Harare: Mwandiambira+Tauzeni+Teede” Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: FNB Joburg Art Fair 2016, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: I am because you are - Group Show, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: “It is without.” Solo Show, First Floor Gallery: Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: "Excerpts", Solo Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E.
2015: "The Material Presence of the Past", Solo Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2015: "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark", Solo Show,. Amanzi: Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: "Waste no Waste, Trash is Treasure", Group Show, Italian Ambassador's Residence: Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: "Chimuti, Pepa, Dombo" (Wood, Paper, Rock) . Group Show. Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2014: "IndustrArt", Group Show. Nigel Joscelyne: Harare, Zimbabwe
2014: "Modern Painting", Group Show, Kalk Bay Modern: Cape Town, South Africa
2014: "Scripts of Our Unspoken Words", Group Show, Showcase: Dubai, U.A.E
2013: "Greatest Hits of 2012", Group Show, AVA Gallery: Cape Town, South Africa
2012: "Mistakes", Group Show, 50 Canterbury Street: Cape Town, South Africa
2012: "GRAD", Group Show, Michaelis School of Fine Art: Cape Town, South Africa
2008: FUA Graduate Show, Florence University of the Arts: Florence, Italy.
2008: "Dialoghi Muti", Group Show, Florence University of the Arts: Florence, Italy.
2008: “We Still have the Sun”, Solo Show, Richard Rennie: Harare, Zimbabwe
Publications and Solo Exhibition Catalogues
- Teede, H., Kabov, V. (ed). 2019. “Bare Limbs.” First Floor Gallery Harare, [online] https://www.firstfloorgalleryharare.com/uploads/8/4/1/2/8412558/bare_limbs_-_helen_teede.pdf-
- Teede, H. 2019. “Between Banality and Terror: Artistic Discourse, Collective Anxiety and Climate Crisis. The Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.” The Art Section: An Online Journal of Art and Cultural Commentary, [online] https://www.theartsection.com/lithuanian-pavilion-venice-biennale
- Teede, H. 2019. “Image as Testimony and Working Through Trauma in the paintings of Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude and Wycliffe Mundopa.” Something We Africans Got, January 2019, Issue no. 7: Paris, France.
- Teede, H. 2017. “The Advantages and Pitfalls of Revisiting History: ICAC Zimbabwe.” Art Africa Magazine, December 2017, Issue no. 10: Cape Town, South Africa.
- Teede, H. 2017. “Unhomed,” Showcase Gallery. Dubai, U.A.E.
- Teede, H., Kabov, V. (ed). 2016. “It is the Without,” First Floor Gallery Harare, [online] https://www.firstfloorgalleryharare.com/uploads/8/4/1/2/8412558/helen_teede-it_is_the_without.pdf
- Teede, H. 2015. “The Material Presence of the Past,” Showcase Gallery, Dubai, U.A.E.
