Mavis Tauzeni
Biography
Born 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Like many of my peers Harare I trained at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio, which I completed in 2009 specialising in printmaking and painting, and which continue to be my main media.
Working on canvas and on paper, my goal as an artist is to make work inviting viewers to be immersed in the unsettling stillness of introspection and waters that run deep. My work is deeply personal with imagery, which oscillates between the surreal, futuristic and dreamy. While figuration floats in and out of my work, I treat it conceptually rather than representationally. Despite intimacy and other worldliness, it is nonetheless a social commentary, speaking implicitly and explicitly to the difficulties of being a woman and a woman artist with an independent and individual journey. Although I am speaking to the realities of my life in Zimbabwe, I hope and believe that the sentiments engendered in my work are immediately empathetic, not only to women but to all of us yearning to break out of convention and social expectation. While I am deeply conscious of feminism and gender in my work, my practice is broader than the issues generally addressed in gender activist art. I firmly believe that the idea that being a contemporary artist means does not mean a break with all traditional values. In my practice I assert the right to be a woman on my own terms and those terms include respect for family and tradition, the right to demand intimacy, privacy where they are needed and to speak softly when I want to. And while it has in some ways meant sacrifices in the speed of career progression, it has unequivocally meant not sacrificing my integrity and personal values.
My work has been selected to take part in National Gallery of Zimbabwe Annual exhibition in 2014 and 2015, I have taken part in Women speak out group exhibition at Fondation Blachère Arts Centre Apt (Christine Eyene, curator), in 2017 my work was included Another Antipodes/urban axix, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia. In 2022 I presented a solo project as part of Tomorrow’s Today curated section at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair as well as a solo exhibition at Chinatown Taylor’s in Los Angeles. My work is in the Fondation Blachère as well as Rubell Family Collection among others.
Education
2009: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
Exhibitions
2023: It is Reality! solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: Pachedu (Among Ourselves), Half Gallery, New York, United States
2022: Chinatown Taylor’s: Vaanhingirkii (You can’t remember but you won’t forget) , Los Angeles, United States
2022: Tomorrows/Today (solo), Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town
2021: Art Joburg online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2019: AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2019: On A Clear Day, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, 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
2016: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Eve’s diaries solo exhibition at First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Turbine Art Fair – Johannesburg, South Africa
2015: HIFA group show at First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Annual Exhibition – National Gallery of Zimbabwe
2014: Annual Exhibition – National Gallery of Zimbabwe
2014: Women speak out group exhibition at Fondation Blachère Arts Centre Apt (Vaucluse, France)
2013: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London, UK
2013: Berliner Liste 2013 Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2013: No Limits – Harare International Festival of the Arts – Artists’ Choice Peoples’ Choice Competition (Winner, Works on Paper Prize)
2013: I am, I was, I could be – Mavis Tauzeni/Willemijn de Groot First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Chiso – Face Group Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Young Artist Exhibition Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe.
2012: Olympic artists Competition, Harare, Zimbabwe.
2012: Harare Haarare Collaborative exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare.
2012: Family, Tradition and Religion, Group exhibition, Gallery Delta
2012: Vasikana Vedu, Harare Festival of the Arts – First Floor Gallery Harare @Basement Nightclub
2011: Still life exhibition, Delta Gallery, Zimbabwe.
2010: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2009: Peace through Unity in Diversity, (European Commission exhibition), Gallery Delta
2009: Walls, Berlin Wall anniversary exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2008: Cottco Exhibition National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
2008: Enriching Woman, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Painters, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
Workshop/Residency
2014: Wemah Art Project (Bonendalè, Cameroon)
Awards
2012: Award of attendance, Zimbabwe Olympic Committee
2010: Award of merit, Peace exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Special Mention Prize, Facet Zimbabwe Now exhibition, Delta Gallery, Zimbabwe.
2009: 2nd prize for mixed media, Walls exhibition Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2009: Special Mentions, Peace through Unity Exhibition Gallery Delta, Harare
2008: Award of Merit, Cottco Exhibition and prize, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
2008: Special prize, Enriching Woman, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
Born 1982 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe
Like many of my peers Harare I trained at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio, which I completed in 2009 specialising in printmaking and painting, and which continue to be my main media.
Working on canvas and on paper, my goal as an artist is to make work inviting viewers to be immersed in the unsettling stillness of introspection and waters that run deep. My work is deeply personal with imagery, which oscillates between the surreal, futuristic and dreamy. While figuration floats in and out of my work, I treat it conceptually rather than representationally. Despite intimacy and other worldliness, it is nonetheless a social commentary, speaking implicitly and explicitly to the difficulties of being a woman and a woman artist with an independent and individual journey. Although I am speaking to the realities of my life in Zimbabwe, I hope and believe that the sentiments engendered in my work are immediately empathetic, not only to women but to all of us yearning to break out of convention and social expectation. While I am deeply conscious of feminism and gender in my work, my practice is broader than the issues generally addressed in gender activist art. I firmly believe that the idea that being a contemporary artist means does not mean a break with all traditional values. In my practice I assert the right to be a woman on my own terms and those terms include respect for family and tradition, the right to demand intimacy, privacy where they are needed and to speak softly when I want to. And while it has in some ways meant sacrifices in the speed of career progression, it has unequivocally meant not sacrificing my integrity and personal values.
My work has been selected to take part in National Gallery of Zimbabwe Annual exhibition in 2014 and 2015, I have taken part in Women speak out group exhibition at Fondation Blachère Arts Centre Apt (Christine Eyene, curator), in 2017 my work was included Another Antipodes/urban axix, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia. In 2022 I presented a solo project as part of Tomorrow’s Today curated section at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair as well as a solo exhibition at Chinatown Taylor’s in Los Angeles. My work is in the Fondation Blachère as well as Rubell Family Collection among others.
Education
2009: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
Exhibitions
2023: It is Reality! solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022: Pachedu (Among Ourselves), Half Gallery, New York, United States
2022: Chinatown Taylor’s: Vaanhingirkii (You can’t remember but you won’t forget) , Los Angeles, United States
2022: Tomorrows/Today (solo), Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town
2021: Art Joburg online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2020: Level | Mosi-oa-tunya, First Floor Gallery Vic Falls, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2019: AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2019: On A Clear Day, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2018: Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, 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
2016: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Eve’s diaries solo exhibition at First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Turbine Art Fair – Johannesburg, South Africa
2015: HIFA group show at First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Annual Exhibition – National Gallery of Zimbabwe
2014: Annual Exhibition – National Gallery of Zimbabwe
2014: Women speak out group exhibition at Fondation Blachère Arts Centre Apt (Vaucluse, France)
2013: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London, UK
2013: Berliner Liste 2013 Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2013: No Limits – Harare International Festival of the Arts – Artists’ Choice Peoples’ Choice Competition (Winner, Works on Paper Prize)
2013: I am, I was, I could be – Mavis Tauzeni/Willemijn de Groot First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Chiso – Face Group Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Young Artist Exhibition Gallery Delta, Zimbabwe.
2012: Olympic artists Competition, Harare, Zimbabwe.
2012: Harare Haarare Collaborative exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare.
2012: Family, Tradition and Religion, Group exhibition, Gallery Delta
2012: Vasikana Vedu, Harare Festival of the Arts – First Floor Gallery Harare @Basement Nightclub
2011: Still life exhibition, Delta Gallery, Zimbabwe.
2010: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2009: Peace through Unity in Diversity, (European Commission exhibition), Gallery Delta
2009: Walls, Berlin Wall anniversary exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2008: Cottco Exhibition National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
2008: Enriching Woman, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Painters, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
Workshop/Residency
2014: Wemah Art Project (Bonendalè, Cameroon)
Awards
2012: Award of attendance, Zimbabwe Olympic Committee
2010: Award of merit, Peace exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Special Mention Prize, Facet Zimbabwe Now exhibition, Delta Gallery, Zimbabwe.
2009: 2nd prize for mixed media, Walls exhibition Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2009: Special Mentions, Peace through Unity Exhibition Gallery Delta, Harare
2008: Award of Merit, Cottco Exhibition and prize, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
2008: Special prize, Enriching Woman, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
