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 far 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
Solo:
2024: Mbare Opera, Southern Guild Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2023: Pachipamwe (We Meet Again), Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Zva_nyadza: FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020: 1001 Afternoons, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK
2019: Latitudes Art Fair solo presentation , First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2016: VoltaNY, First Floor Gallery Harare, New York, USA
2015: Myths of Harare – Commune 1 Gallery/Ebony Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014: Dramascapes, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group:
2024: Untitled Art Fair, Southern Guild Gallery, Miami, USA
2024: Kuvhunura: The Harare School (Group exhibition), Fondation Blachère, Bonnieux, France
2024: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2023: FNB Art Joburg, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023: Messe Messe (Group Exhibition), First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2023: Cyclical Bloom (group exhibition), Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2023: Frieze London, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2022: Echo curated by Serubiri Moses, Jenkins Johnson Projects, New York, USA
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
2020: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Kubatana – African Contemporary Art Survey, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2019: Day & Night, Mundopa/Nyaude, GNYP Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2019: Night & Day – Wycliffe Mundopa/Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teedе), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018: Defying the narrative, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, USA
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: Art16, 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
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, First Floor Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015: Harare > Mundopa, Nyaude, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2015: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape town, South Africa
2014: FNB at Joburg Art Fair 2014, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013: Nude, Naked, Nature Exhibition at Iroko Arts, 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, 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: 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: Graduate Exhibition, 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
References
Interview SABC September 2019
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.
Education
2007: National Certificate in Fine Art - National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios
Exhibitions
Solo:
2024: Mbare Opera, Southern Guild Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2023: Pachipamwe (We Meet Again), Southern Guild Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021: Zva_nyadza: FNB Art Joburg Prize, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020: 1001 Afternoons, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK
2019: Latitudes Art Fair solo presentation , First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018: Tomorrows/Today solo presentation, Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2016: VoltaNY, First Floor Gallery Harare, New York, USA
2015: Myths of Harare – Commune 1 Gallery/Ebony Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014: Dramascapes, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group:
2024: Untitled Art Fair, Southern Guild Gallery, Miami, USA
2024: Kuvhunura: The Harare School (Group exhibition), Fondation Blachère, Bonnieux, France
2024: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2023: FNB Art Joburg, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023: Messe Messe (Group Exhibition), First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2023: Cyclical Bloom (group exhibition), Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2023: Frieze London, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2022: Echo curated by Serubiri Moses, Jenkins Johnson Projects, New York, USA
2021: Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
2020: Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls
2020: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2019: Kubatana – African Contemporary Art Survey, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2019: Day & Night, Mundopa/Nyaude, GNYP Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2019: Night & Day – Wycliffe Mundopa/Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2019: Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teedе), Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018: Defying the narrative, Ever Gold Projects, San Francisco, USA
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: Art16, 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
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, First Floor Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015: Harare > Mundopa, Nyaude, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2015: Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape town, South Africa
2014: FNB at Joburg Art Fair 2014, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013: Nude, Naked, Nature Exhibition at Iroko Arts, 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, 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: 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: Graduate Exhibition, 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
References
Interview SABC September 2019