Wycliffe Mundopa
Biography
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 war and wide as Norway, Thailand, Cameroon, USA, Hong Kong, Nigeria, France, Israel Australia, Kenya, Netherlands as well as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Education
2007: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
Exhibitions
2021: Zva_nyadza, FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2021: ICTAF - MIART online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2021: What Makes Us’ Wycliffe Mundopa, '2011 - 2021', - First Floor Gallery, Artsy Online Exclusive
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
2020: April/May Solo Exhibition, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK
2020: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Latitudes Art Fair solo presentation , First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019: Day & Night, Mundopa/Nyaude, GNYP Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2019: Kubatana, African contemporary art, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2019: Night & Day – Wycliffe Mundopa/Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude – First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teed), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018: Defying the narrative, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, USA
2018: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2017: Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
2017: AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2017: FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017: Another Antipodes/urban axis, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017: Hello Harare, Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: Art 16, London, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: Volta, New York, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: FNB Joburg Art fair, Johannesburg, South Africa, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: 'I am because you are', First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Cape Town Art Fair 2016, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Flaunt, Africa New Wave Now, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY, USA, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Swab Art Fair, focus on painting from African and African diaspora, Eva Barois-De Caeval curator, solo presenation, First Floor Gallery Harare, Barcelona, Spain
2015: FNB Joburg Art Fair 2015 - Johannesburg, South Africa, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Harare > Mundopa, Nyaude, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, SA, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape town, South Africa
2015: Myths of Harare – Commune 1 Gallery/Ebony Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014: FNB at Joburg Art Fair 2014, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014: Dramascapes, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Nude, Naked, Nature Exhibition at Iroko Arts Consultants - Nairobi, Kenya
2014: No Limits Exhibition (Harare International Festival of the Arts), First Floor Gallery Harare- Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London, UK
2013: Berliner Liste Art Fair 2013, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2013: Chiso/Face, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2012: Inexactly This, Kunstvlaai Festival of Independents, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012: Harare Haarare Exhibition @ First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2012: Berliner Liste Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2012: Joburg Fringe Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012: Painting Performed by First Floor Gallery Harare @ Chimanimani Arts Festival - Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
2012: Harare Beyond Words, Brian Curtin curator, Gallery H - Bangkok, Thailand
2011: Reaching Out Exhibition, First Floor Gallery at Chimanimani Arts Festival - Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
2011: Jeune Zimbabwean, Le Pavé d'Orsay, Paris, France
2011: Austral><Afric, First Floor Gallery Harare, The Basement Nightclub - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: First Steps, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Month of Printmaking Exhibition at Dzimbanhete Art Interactions - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Live and Direct exhibition and Prize, National Gallery of Zimbabwe -Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Artists in Stream, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2008: Enriching Woman Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Let’s Get Together Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Painters Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Peace through Unity in Diversity, Exhibition and Prize, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Final Year Show, National Gallery of Zimbabwe - Harare, Zimbabwe
Awards & Institutional Collections
2021: FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018: Ilana Goor Museum Collection, Jaffa, Israel
2017: Right at the Equator Collection, Los Angeles, USA
2017: Africa First Artist Residency/Africa First Collection, Tel Aviv, Israel
2016: Art 16 London Villa Lena Prize, London, UK
2015: Lluis Coromina, Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
2013: Museum of Modern Art of Equatorial Guinea
2007: Special Mention, Peace Through Unity Exhibition and Prize, European Commission, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: National Art Merit Award, Prize for Outstanding work in two dimensions - Harare, Zimbabwe
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 war and wide as Norway, Thailand, Cameroon, USA, Hong Kong, Nigeria, France, Israel Australia, Kenya, Netherlands as well as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Education
2007: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
Exhibitions
2021: Zva_nyadza, FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2021: ICTAF - MIART online, First Floor Gallery Harare
2021: What Makes Us’ Wycliffe Mundopa, '2011 - 2021', - First Floor Gallery, Artsy Online Exclusive
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
2020: April/May Solo Exhibition, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK
2020: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Latitudes Art Fair solo presentation , First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019: Day & Night, Mundopa/Nyaude, GNYP Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2019: Kubatana, African contemporary art, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2019: Night & Day – Wycliffe Mundopa/Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude – First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teed), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018: Defying the narrative, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, USA
2018: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2017: Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
2017: AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
2017: FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017: Another Antipodes/urban axis, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017: Hello Harare, Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: Art 16, London, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: Volta, New York, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: FNB Joburg Art fair, Johannesburg, South Africa, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016: 'I am because you are', First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016: Cape Town Art Fair 2016, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Flaunt, Africa New Wave Now, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY, USA, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Swab Art Fair, focus on painting from African and African diaspora, Eva Barois-De Caeval curator, solo presenation, First Floor Gallery Harare, Barcelona, Spain
2015: FNB Joburg Art Fair 2015 - Johannesburg, South Africa, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Harare > Mundopa, Nyaude, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, SA, First Floor Gallery Harare
2015: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape town, South Africa
2015: Myths of Harare – Commune 1 Gallery/Ebony Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014: FNB at Joburg Art Fair 2014, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014: Dramascapes, solo exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: Nude, Naked, Nature Exhibition at Iroko Arts Consultants - Nairobi, Kenya
2014: No Limits Exhibition (Harare International Festival of the Arts), First Floor Gallery Harare- Harare, Zimbabwe
2013: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London, UK
2013: Berliner Liste Art Fair 2013, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2013: Chiso/Face, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2012: Inexactly This, Kunstvlaai Festival of Independents, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012: Harare Haarare Exhibition @ First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2012: Berliner Liste Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
2012: Joburg Fringe Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012: Painting Performed by First Floor Gallery Harare @ Chimanimani Arts Festival - Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
2012: Harare Beyond Words, Brian Curtin curator, Gallery H - Bangkok, Thailand
2011: Reaching Out Exhibition, First Floor Gallery at Chimanimani Arts Festival - Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
2011: Jeune Zimbabwean, Le Pavé d'Orsay, Paris, France
2011: Austral><Afric, First Floor Gallery Harare, The Basement Nightclub - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: First Steps, First Floor Gallery Harare - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Month of Printmaking Exhibition at Dzimbanhete Art Interactions - Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Live and Direct exhibition and Prize, National Gallery of Zimbabwe -Harare, Zimbabwe
2010: Artists in Stream, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2008: Enriching Woman Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Let’s Get Together Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Painters Exhibition, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Peace through Unity in Diversity, Exhibition and Prize, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Young Artist Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: Final Year Show, National Gallery of Zimbabwe - Harare, Zimbabwe
Awards & Institutional Collections
2021: FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018: Ilana Goor Museum Collection, Jaffa, Israel
2017: Right at the Equator Collection, Los Angeles, USA
2017: Africa First Artist Residency/Africa First Collection, Tel Aviv, Israel
2016: Art 16 London Villa Lena Prize, London, UK
2015: Lluis Coromina, Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
2013: Museum of Modern Art of Equatorial Guinea
2007: Special Mention, Peace Through Unity Exhibition and Prize, European Commission, Gallery Delta - Harare, Zimbabwe
2007: National Art Merit Award, Prize for Outstanding work in two dimensions - Harare, Zimbabwe
Recent Exhibitions
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Zva_nyadza - FNB Art Joburg Prize 2021 Johannesburg Art Gallery
South Africa 29 October 2021 - 7 November 2022 View more |
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Selected Press
Phillips Announces Highlights from the London New Now Auction this April
13 April 2022
ARTFIX Daily
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Wycliffe Mundopa: 'I think the idea of beauty as a kind of grace and finesse is a Eurocentric notion'
16 March 2022
Mail& Guardian
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13 April 2022
ARTFIX Daily
View more
Wycliffe Mundopa: 'I think the idea of beauty as a kind of grace and finesse is a Eurocentric notion'
16 March 2022
Mail& Guardian
View more
References