eBusiness Weekly
The year 2017 proved to be a remarkable and successful year for the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. It had a variant of interesting and engaging shows from the beginning of the year, at the same time NGZ was celebrating its 60th birthday.
A number of exhibitions highlighted the year and these include Discoloured margins, Achikulile — a tribute to Amali Malola, African Voices — Confronting the Frontiers of reality, Mapping — Zimbabwean Morden Art Development, Kudzanai’s We need New Names and a lot more.
All these exhibitions had different themes showcasing artworks done by different artists depicting different points of views as imagined by each artist.
During the same year NGZ held different engaging activities such as the Harare conversation and First Fridays.
The International Conference on African Cultures was held in Zimbabwe for the second time since 1962 and Zimbabwe participated for the fourth time at the 57th International Art Exhibition in Venice. Through the exceptional support from different organisations and the local community the Gallery was able to launch all of these successfully.
In January the Zimbabwe Annual and Green Shoots (now Rough Diamonds) which had been launched in December 2016 were still being exhibited.
From February to April Achikulile and Discoloured margins exhibitions were exhibited.
Achikulile was an exhibition paying tribute to sculptor Amali Malola. Malola was a founding sculptor of Tengenenge and the exhibition marked two years since his passing.
Discoloured margins presented works that were magnifying the politics of women’s bodies, their race and their role in the society. It touched down on how despite the fights for equality, women still have barriers surrounding.
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe which has been open to the public since 1957 celebrated its 60th anniversary. The Gallery held a cocktail art to celebrate 60 years of providing good service as an art institution. As an art institution it has managed to provide its service to the public and showcase artworks done by different artists in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean art has since diversified and moved on to the contemporary art scene and with the intensive support from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, it has nurtured many artists who are raising the country’s flag high in both the local and international borders.
In May 2017, four Zimbabwean artists made their way to Venice, namely Admire Kamudzengere, Charles Bhebhe, Dana Whabira and Sylvester Mbayi. These four represented Zimbabwe at the 57th International Art Exhibition.
This was Zimbabwe’s fourth participation at the Zimbabwe Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. These artists and their experience in their field of work had an influence towards the Zimbabwean Pavilion at Venice and the theme for that particular year — Deconstructing Boundaries: Exploring Ideas of Belonging.
The participation of Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale was of great importance as this has promoted Zimbabwean artists, their artworks and the Zimbabwean culture in the international art scene.
Another event to highlight 2017 was definitely the International Conference on African Cultures (ICAC2017). The first conference was held in 1962 when Frank McEwen was the Director.
The event which got a lot of sponsorship and partnership from different local companies was launched successfully. The event successfully brought together local and international artists, curators and educators.
The conference was of great importance to African art and culture as there was need to talk about the future of Art and Culture in the African continent.
It raised awareness on the need to have such conferences where Africans gather for a common cause, discussing common issues with the goal and objective to achieve the same end result.
The conference days were categorised in different themes such as Art and Art History from Africa; Space and infrastructure for Art and Culture in Africa; Heritage and Conservation.
These were a beckoning force to reckon within mapping the Future. Speakers were key players in delivering at the conference. Some of the speakers were Bisi Silva from Nigeria, Gabi Ngcobo from South Africa, Tumelo Mosaka from South Africa, Paul Goodwin from Britain, Andrew Mulenga from Zambia who had a lot to share with the audience.
In the local scene the conference was well represented by experienced female professor Dr Ancilla Nhamo from the University of Zimbabwe and artist Lucia Nhamo.
During (ICAC2017) two exhibitions were in display at NGZ and these are the African voices and Mapping exhibition. The African Voices and the Mapping exhibition were showing at the same time from September to October. Both of these exhibitions encompassed of a wide range of artists lending their voices from different angles and perspectives.
The Mapping exhibition highlighted the pivotal Zimbabwean Narratives while exploring African and western meeting points against a background of contemporary concern, while the African voices exhibition focused on confronting frontiers as it tapped into the social, economic and biogenetic transmutation realities that Africans face daily.
From November till early December the Gallery hosted We need new names a solo exhibition, by Kudzanai Chiurai curated by Candice Allison. This was the internationally acclaimed artist’s first solo exhibition in his home country.
The exhibition title, referred to No Violet Bulawayo’s debut novel which offered an exploration of Christian values and traditional intersection, patriarchal structures and gender roles; memories of home before Zimbabwe’s independence, during the period of stability followed by the time “of things falling apart”, and the fractured identity that comes with assimilation of Western cultures.
Part of his exhibition was pictures of a female portraying Jesus and a door written Cecil John Rhodes with a waiting bench on the right side of the door. The exhibition created a lot of questions to ponder as some of his works were relating to today’s happenings.
Wrapping up the year were two exhibitions, the Zimbabwe Annual Art exhibition and Rough Diamonds. These two exhibitions were opened on the same day at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe on the 14th of December. The Minister of Sports Arts and Culture Honourable Mr R. Kazembe Kazembe officially opened the Zimbabwe Annual Art exhibition gave a speech to the audience.
The Zimbabwe Annual Art Exhibition has always been giving an opportunity for emerging artists to showcase their talent and this time around, the exhibition witnessed an overwhelming response as the National Gallery of Zimbabwe provided a presentation of quality artworks sourced from both emerging and established artists.
Running under the theme Form and Colour: futures are written by artists, the exhibition emphasised on the use of different materials to produce their favourable works with the hope that artists produce best works for the local and International community. This helps achieve the required visibility for Zimbabwean artists.
Rough Diamonds is a showcase of works done by students at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe School of Visual Art and Design and it exhibits works of emerging artists who have spent the past two years obtaining essential creative skills.
The Rough diamonds has presented itself as an opportunity for students to get a glimpse of how the art industry operates as they challenge themselves during their school term to finally come up with the different types of art pieces they will exhibit.
Previously known as Greenshoots, Rough Diamonds exhibition showed how well stocked it was with evidence that young artists were adequately equipped and had the capability to launch their independent career.
Since the beginning of the year the Gallery has been holding fun and engaging shows to the public. These occur on the first Friday of every month and the number of people who attend these has been increasing.
The 9yt of the Kolour, one of the First Friday that occurred during the past year had a great attendance as people gathered in the Sculpture garden painting while music was playing in the background.
The Gallery has also been hosting Harare conversation in the Thomas Meikle library at the Gallery. The conversations encompass dialogues among a group of as people carry out discussions on different topics suggested.
In March 2017, there was a Harare conversation on the Discoloured Margins exhibition which addressed issues pertaining
Above all it can be noted that indeed 2017 was full of memorable and successful events. With the help of well-established business practitioners, Zimbabwean art was able to move beyond borders at the same time boosting the business side of art.
Welcoming 2018 there is hope that Zimbabwean art and its artist will reach greater heights at the same time boosting the art business.
