Making Space |
In 1980 Zimbabwe became independent, establishing a state with lofty ideas of equality and self-determination for all. Also in 1980, a feminist architecture collective called Matrix, published a book called ‘Making Space – Women and the Man Made Environment’. Matrix’s goal was ‘to work together as women ….to look critically at the way our built surroundings can affect women in this society: of how we are 'placed' as women in a man-made environment and to use that knowledge to subvert it.”
While ideas can change rapidly and overwhelmingly, all of us, not just women, continue to live in legacy spaces. Buildings, cities and environments are much harder to replace and adjust than words on a page, fashions or modes of behaviour. Subtly and unsubtly our spaces carry and perpetuate histories of privilege, oppression and exclusion which enable or preclude genuine agency even when the professed context and paradigm has shifted.
1980 may seem far away especially to the younger generations and the ideas which propelled Zimbabwe’s quest for independence and the issues raised in “Making Space” are not fully realised with the complicity of a legacy of colonial and patriarchal environments and infrastructures acting as underwater rocks. This continues to be urgent and relevant.
While the name of Zimbabwe’s capital was easily changed to Harare, the city is still divided by colonial city planning, and subjugated by colonial regulations designed to prevent development and enforce segregation along ethnic and socio-economic divides. While women are equal in law, in practice they live in environments where public spaces are only partially safe for them and dominated by men and where their dreams and ambitions have to somehow mould themselves around circumstances rather than be asserted.
In more ways than one, it is up to women to recognise that these are the faulty constructs, which are an obstacle to all, not to be revised, adjusted or amended but actively changed to make space in which they and everyone can thrive. This thinking requires all - love, anger, dreaming and play which reconnects us to our humanity and our inner quest for freedom and fulfilment.
As artists, the women of First Floor Gallery Harare are intuitively and intentionally drawn to addressing the achievement of a new decolonial, depatriarchal paradigm in which poetry and transcendence are not sacrificed for didactics.
In Making Space, we are celebrating the practices of women artists who show incredible courage in both self-awareness and singularity of purpose. They are defiantly ambitious and unapologetic about their life choices and demand to be considered for the totality of their human weight, rather than their relational, social or artistic status.
Shamilla Aasha, Amanda Shingirai Mushate, Anne Zanele Mutema, Miriro Mwandiambira, Mavis Tauzeni, Helen Teede, Lauren Webber,
we salute you!
Valerie Kabov
©2022
While ideas can change rapidly and overwhelmingly, all of us, not just women, continue to live in legacy spaces. Buildings, cities and environments are much harder to replace and adjust than words on a page, fashions or modes of behaviour. Subtly and unsubtly our spaces carry and perpetuate histories of privilege, oppression and exclusion which enable or preclude genuine agency even when the professed context and paradigm has shifted.
1980 may seem far away especially to the younger generations and the ideas which propelled Zimbabwe’s quest for independence and the issues raised in “Making Space” are not fully realised with the complicity of a legacy of colonial and patriarchal environments and infrastructures acting as underwater rocks. This continues to be urgent and relevant.
While the name of Zimbabwe’s capital was easily changed to Harare, the city is still divided by colonial city planning, and subjugated by colonial regulations designed to prevent development and enforce segregation along ethnic and socio-economic divides. While women are equal in law, in practice they live in environments where public spaces are only partially safe for them and dominated by men and where their dreams and ambitions have to somehow mould themselves around circumstances rather than be asserted.
In more ways than one, it is up to women to recognise that these are the faulty constructs, which are an obstacle to all, not to be revised, adjusted or amended but actively changed to make space in which they and everyone can thrive. This thinking requires all - love, anger, dreaming and play which reconnects us to our humanity and our inner quest for freedom and fulfilment.
As artists, the women of First Floor Gallery Harare are intuitively and intentionally drawn to addressing the achievement of a new decolonial, depatriarchal paradigm in which poetry and transcendence are not sacrificed for didactics.
In Making Space, we are celebrating the practices of women artists who show incredible courage in both self-awareness and singularity of purpose. They are defiantly ambitious and unapologetic about their life choices and demand to be considered for the totality of their human weight, rather than their relational, social or artistic status.
Shamilla Aasha, Amanda Shingirai Mushate, Anne Zanele Mutema, Miriro Mwandiambira, Mavis Tauzeni, Helen Teede, Lauren Webber,
we salute you!
Valerie Kabov
©2022
Shamilla Aasha
Born 1977 Hwange, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Shamilla Aasha is a practicing artist and teacher of art and design as well as an activist focused on supporting young women and young women artists in Bulawayo. After many years of working in painting and mixed media, in 2018 Aasha reengaged with her love of textiles through exploration of her multi-cultural background as a Shona and Indian woman living in Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe. Developing complex works addressing issues related to merging cultures and traditional practices and how they influence identity, spirituality and social status for herself and other women in her community.
Aasha’s works defy attempts at categorisation, incorporating weaving, tapestry as well as engaging with the idea and history of painting. They emerge as soft sculptures, wall-hangings made from found objects as well abstract embroideries. She describes them as sacred objects, a fitting metaphor for her narratives. This metaphor is further expanded on, as she uses sewing patterns, fabric and stitching. This process allows her to create new patterns from the old and with each layer creating a palmistry language. Shamilla has participated in numerous exhibitions locally regionally and internationally. She is currently part of an ongoing, regional collaborative project, which is interrogating the participation of women in land redistribution in Southern Africa. In addition to artistic practice, Shamilla also continues to nurture creativity minds through her trust-Asha Children’s Trust, an organisation devoted to creating safe spaces for young creatives grow and thrive outside the formal education sector.
Education
2000 Diploma Textile Design, Bulawayo School of Art and Design
Selected Exhibitions
2021: "A line beyond" Olga Speakes curator, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Breathing Time, Solo exhibition. First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
2021: Nyika/Ilizwe/Nation Collective Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo
2019: Womens’ Exhibition, Better Balance, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare.
2018: BUKA group Exhibition -The Suttie Art Space-Aberdeen,
2018 Harare contemporary, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2019: Nyika/Ilizwe/Nation Workshop Zimbabwe and South Africa collaborative project, interrogating the participation of woman in land redistribution in Southern Africa.
2019: Moving Stories and Travelling Rhythms workshop with Penny Siopis.
2018: Womens’ Exhibition-Equality Collective Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Binds that tie, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
2012: On the Stoep –Suburbs Bulawayo, Poetic Brush-Bulawayo Theatre, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2010: Calling of my Soul – Solo exhibition. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2009: Confrontation and Reconciliation exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2007: Women of the Cloth and Stone, Embassy of the United States of America in Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Lives and works in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Shamilla Aasha is a practicing artist and teacher of art and design as well as an activist focused on supporting young women and young women artists in Bulawayo. After many years of working in painting and mixed media, in 2018 Aasha reengaged with her love of textiles through exploration of her multi-cultural background as a Shona and Indian woman living in Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe. Developing complex works addressing issues related to merging cultures and traditional practices and how they influence identity, spirituality and social status for herself and other women in her community.
Aasha’s works defy attempts at categorisation, incorporating weaving, tapestry as well as engaging with the idea and history of painting. They emerge as soft sculptures, wall-hangings made from found objects as well abstract embroideries. She describes them as sacred objects, a fitting metaphor for her narratives. This metaphor is further expanded on, as she uses sewing patterns, fabric and stitching. This process allows her to create new patterns from the old and with each layer creating a palmistry language. Shamilla has participated in numerous exhibitions locally regionally and internationally. She is currently part of an ongoing, regional collaborative project, which is interrogating the participation of women in land redistribution in Southern Africa. In addition to artistic practice, Shamilla also continues to nurture creativity minds through her trust-Asha Children’s Trust, an organisation devoted to creating safe spaces for young creatives grow and thrive outside the formal education sector.
Education
2000 Diploma Textile Design, Bulawayo School of Art and Design
Selected Exhibitions
2021: "A line beyond" Olga Speakes curator, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Breathing Time, Solo exhibition. First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
2021: Nyika/Ilizwe/Nation Collective Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo
2019: Womens’ Exhibition, Better Balance, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare.
2018: BUKA group Exhibition -The Suttie Art Space-Aberdeen,
2018 Harare contemporary, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2019: Nyika/Ilizwe/Nation Workshop Zimbabwe and South Africa collaborative project, interrogating the participation of woman in land redistribution in Southern Africa.
2019: Moving Stories and Travelling Rhythms workshop with Penny Siopis.
2018: Womens’ Exhibition-Equality Collective Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Binds that tie, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
2012: On the Stoep –Suburbs Bulawayo, Poetic Brush-Bulawayo Theatre, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2010: Calling of my Soul – Solo exhibition. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2009: Confrontation and Reconciliation exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2007: Women of the Cloth and Stone, Embassy of the United States of America in Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Amanda Shingirai Mushate
Born 1995, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
At just twenty-five, 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.
Selected Recent Exhibitions
2021: "A line beyond" Olga Speakes curator, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare: Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Nguva ine Muridzi, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2020: African Galleries Now, African Art Galleries- Artsy Online art fair, First Floor Gallery
2020: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Emerging Painting Invitational (finalist), First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: On A Clear Day (Amanda Mushate - Mavis Tauzeni), First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Hupenyu Hwangu Ndapedza Dzidzo (My Life-End of Lessons) solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2017: Young Artist Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Green Shoots, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
At just twenty-five, 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.
Selected Recent Exhibitions
2021: "A line beyond" Olga Speakes curator, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare: Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Nguva ine Muridzi, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2020: African Galleries Now, African Art Galleries- Artsy Online art fair, First Floor Gallery
2020: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Emerging Painting Invitational (finalist), First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: On A Clear Day (Amanda Mushate - Mavis Tauzeni), First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Hupenyu Hwangu Ndapedza Dzidzo (My Life-End of Lessons) solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2017: Young Artist Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Green Shoots, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
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’.
Education
2010: National Gallery Visual Art Studio
2009: Zimbabwe Institute of Photography and Cinematography
Exhibitions
2022: Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada
2021: Vacancy (Zanele Mutema/Miriro Mwandiambira), First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
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
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, Zimbabwe
2013: Afiriperfoma Biennale, Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: In Black and White-First Floor Gallery Harare, 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’.
Education
2010: National Gallery Visual Art Studio
2009: Zimbabwe Institute of Photography and Cinematography
Exhibitions
2022: Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada
2021: Vacancy (Zanele Mutema/Miriro Mwandiambira), First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
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
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, Zimbabwe
2013: Afiriperfoma Biennale, Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: In Black and White-First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
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 condence 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:
2022 Flight of the Fallen, Tomorrows Today, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare
2022 Vaanhingiriki solo project, Henry Taylor space, Los Angeles, United States
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
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 condence 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:
2022 Flight of the Fallen, Tomorrows Today, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare
2022 Vaanhingiriki solo project, Henry Taylor space, Los Angeles, United States
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
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 having completed her Masters in Visual Art at IUAV University of Venice with 110/110 and Honours. Her thesis, “Phenomenology of Painting as an Intersectional 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
2022 Finalist Exhibition, The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
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.
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 having completed her Masters in Visual Art at IUAV University of Venice with 110/110 and Honours. Her thesis, “Phenomenology of Painting as an Intersectional 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
2022 Finalist Exhibition, The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
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.
Lauren Webber
Born 1980 Boston, USA. Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Lauren’s practice uses her life as a platform for analysing history of societies as well as art history through the prism of feminism and anti-imperialism. Having moved to Zimbabwe in 2014, with her partner the negotiation of polarities of culture, society and history between USA and Zimbabwe has provided a rich source of material for analysis of the history of West’s engagement with Africa present and historical as well as a personal passage and reflection on identity as a constantly evolving construct. Having focused on photography through her BFA at RISDI, Webber has taken on a broader spectrum of reproduction techniques to enable her to engage with history and materials more direct. Her recent bodies of work blend photo and gravure transfers with painting and ink on locally sourced Zambia cloth to create surrealistic conversations about visual culture and the value we project through it. Over the past several years, Lauren has focused on a rural farming development project, while maintaining an art practice in parallel, with a much anticipated return to exhibiting with
Education
2013 Rhode Island School of Design, BFA Photography. University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Majored in Studio Arts, 2006-2007
2005 University of Vermont, Majored in Psychology and Spanish, 2003-2005
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2022 TBC, ‘Roots and Leaves’, First Floor Gallery Harare, Victoria Falls
2017 Muroora, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2012 Everything is new - Red Eye Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design
Group Exhibitions
2017 Hello Harare - Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: 'I am because you are', First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: But he doesn’t have anything on – Commune.1, Cape town, SA
2015: Motherland/Otherland, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2014: RAW, Venue, Boston, MA 2012 Senior Invitational Exhibition, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD,
2012: Senior Photography Exhibition, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD, 2012 PRC Student Exhibition, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA,
2012: This is Documentary, Red Eye Gallery, RISD, 2011 Coping, Film screening, Cable Car Cinema,
2011: Photography Triennial, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD,
Awards
2012, 2010 Dean’s List, Full Tuition Scholarship, Rhode Island School of Design
http://portfolios.risd.edu/LaurenWebber
Lauren’s practice uses her life as a platform for analysing history of societies as well as art history through the prism of feminism and anti-imperialism. Having moved to Zimbabwe in 2014, with her partner the negotiation of polarities of culture, society and history between USA and Zimbabwe has provided a rich source of material for analysis of the history of West’s engagement with Africa present and historical as well as a personal passage and reflection on identity as a constantly evolving construct. Having focused on photography through her BFA at RISDI, Webber has taken on a broader spectrum of reproduction techniques to enable her to engage with history and materials more direct. Her recent bodies of work blend photo and gravure transfers with painting and ink on locally sourced Zambia cloth to create surrealistic conversations about visual culture and the value we project through it. Over the past several years, Lauren has focused on a rural farming development project, while maintaining an art practice in parallel, with a much anticipated return to exhibiting with
Education
2013 Rhode Island School of Design, BFA Photography. University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Majored in Studio Arts, 2006-2007
2005 University of Vermont, Majored in Psychology and Spanish, 2003-2005
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2022 TBC, ‘Roots and Leaves’, First Floor Gallery Harare, Victoria Falls
2017 Muroora, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2012 Everything is new - Red Eye Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design
Group Exhibitions
2017 Hello Harare - Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: 'I am because you are', First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2015: But he doesn’t have anything on – Commune.1, Cape town, SA
2015: Motherland/Otherland, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2014: RAW, Venue, Boston, MA 2012 Senior Invitational Exhibition, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD,
2012: Senior Photography Exhibition, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD, 2012 PRC Student Exhibition, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA,
2012: This is Documentary, Red Eye Gallery, RISD, 2011 Coping, Film screening, Cable Car Cinema,
2011: Photography Triennial, Woods Gerry Gallery, RISD,
Awards
2012, 2010 Dean’s List, Full Tuition Scholarship, Rhode Island School of Design
http://portfolios.risd.edu/LaurenWebber
Miriro Mwandiambira
Born 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Having graduated from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio, 2014 in painting, Miriro immediately began experimenting with other media developing sculptural, installation and performance oriented projects. At the core of Mwandiambira’s practice is her commitment to being a voice of women in the contemporary social and cultural context of urban Zimbabwe, a tense and urgent mix of global pop culture, with strong traditional roots and beliefs. At the same time, Mwandiambira, asserts the domain of woman’s work and creativity into the space of art, in a way that does not entertain a compromise with or deference to the male dominated mediums and fields like painting and sculpture. Sewing, fashion, hair design and elements of self-decoration are legitimized and the divide between public and private domains is disrupted. In the past few years Miriro’s work has attracted the attention of both international curators and collectors, with a strong performance and installation practice, which has secured her the place at the prestigious RAW Academy in Dakar, Senegal in 2018 and in 2019 she won a scholarship to undertake a Masters of Art in Public Space at EDHEA, Switzerland, which she completed cum laude in 2021.
Selected exhibitions & performances
2022 TBC, Fondation BEA pour Jeunes Artistes Prize) Prize exhibition,
2019 Sugar Embodiment (durational performance), Genoa
2018 Main Complaint, Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town
2018 Breaking Together, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
2017: Another Antipodes, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017: L’élargissement des fantasmes (Eva Barois De Caevel curator), Galerie Maelle, Paris, France
2016: ‘I am because you are’, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Mwandiambira, Tauzeni Teede, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: Woman Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Having graduated from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio, 2014 in painting, Miriro immediately began experimenting with other media developing sculptural, installation and performance oriented projects. At the core of Mwandiambira’s practice is her commitment to being a voice of women in the contemporary social and cultural context of urban Zimbabwe, a tense and urgent mix of global pop culture, with strong traditional roots and beliefs. At the same time, Mwandiambira, asserts the domain of woman’s work and creativity into the space of art, in a way that does not entertain a compromise with or deference to the male dominated mediums and fields like painting and sculpture. Sewing, fashion, hair design and elements of self-decoration are legitimized and the divide between public and private domains is disrupted. In the past few years Miriro’s work has attracted the attention of both international curators and collectors, with a strong performance and installation practice, which has secured her the place at the prestigious RAW Academy in Dakar, Senegal in 2018 and in 2019 she won a scholarship to undertake a Masters of Art in Public Space at EDHEA, Switzerland, which she completed cum laude in 2021.
Selected exhibitions & performances
2022 TBC, Fondation BEA pour Jeunes Artistes Prize) Prize exhibition,
2019 Sugar Embodiment (durational performance), Genoa
2018 Main Complaint, Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town
2018 Breaking Together, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
2017: Another Antipodes, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017: L’élargissement des fantasmes (Eva Barois De Caevel curator), Galerie Maelle, Paris, France
2016: ‘I am because you are’, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Mwandiambira, Tauzeni Teede, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016: Woman Solo Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
