Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa
English
By (author): Andrew Nairne Fiona Bradley Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela Professor Tamar Garb Sinazo Chiya Tandazani Dhlakama
Portia Zvavahera is one of the outstanding artists of her generation. Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985, she has developed a unique combination of print/painting techniques to register a private world of dreams, fantasies and figural constructions. She received her art education in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, and has become recognised in the past decade as one of the foremost representatives of African figuration, showcased at the Venice Biennale in 2022, and in a number of commercial gallery exhibitions in South Africa, the US and the UK. She has not yet had a solo show in a public museum in Europe.
This new publication accompanies a major exhibition, curated by Tamar Garb, which will include reproductions of brand new works created on the occasion of this exhibition alongside a selection of recent and older paintings which reveal the depth and richness of Zvavaheras practice. The focus will be on the theme of dreams, fantasy and figuration, and large details will highlight Zvavaheras innovative amalgamation of printmaking and painting techniques that build rich surfaces to create her private cosmology of creatures and contexts.
The book will feature a significant new essay from curator Tamar Garb and will centre around an extensive conversation between Garb, Sinazo Chiya, Tandazani Dhlakama and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela discussing Zvavaheras engagement with eros, intimacy and female-centred experience.
The book will open up how Zvavaheras works emerge from dreams; being figurative without being illustrative, registering a world of feminine experience and fantasy.
See moreWill deliver when available. Publication date 22 Oct 2024