In their inimitable ways, Nyandoro and Muchawaya’s practices are committed to capturing the actions, mood and thought of life there; depicting the everyday struggle, tenacity and enterprise of its permanent and transitory communities, who are working and living in challenging economic circumstances. These experiences are tethered to the historical and present shifts in the landscape of the town, one of many established during the mid-1980s, transitioning from rural to more urbanised contexts.
Nyandoro’s latest works: ink on paper, mounted on wood panel, are intimately scaled and quietly observe the process of urban-planning development, its actors and the dichotomies felt and experienced of the public-private ‘partnership’. Muchawaya’s portraiture of individuals known to him are conjured through a process of observation and memories that are layered, partially removed and reworked, bringing to the surface of his canvases an emotionally evocative tableau.
About the Artists
Gareth Nyandoro was born in 1982, Bikita, Zimbabwe. He currently lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe. Recent exhibitions include Suburban Bliss, Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NL (solo - 2022); Maworks, Van Doren Waxter, New York (solo - 2021); Ruwa, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (solo - 2020); Read All About It, Van Doren Waxter, New York (2018); Par Amour du Jeu, Magasins Généraux, Paris (2018); Drawing Africa on the Map, Quetzal Art Centre, Portugal (group - 2018); Five Bhobh – Painting at the End of an Era, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (group - 2018); Stall(s) of Fame, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (solo - 2017); Kaleidoscope, Modern Art Oxford (group - 2016). Nyandoro won the FT/ Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices award in 2016 and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, in 2014-2015.
Mostaff Muchawaya was born in 1981. He lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe. Recent exhibitions include Shanduko, Osart Gallery, Milan, Italy (group - 2022); Unsettled, Duende Art Projects, Zwartzusters Monastery, Antwerp, Belgium (group - 2022); In Your Shadow - Masking Realities, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (group - 2021); Where I come from / Kwandinobva, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa (solo - 2020); My Faces / Zviso Zvangu, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa (solo - 2018); Five Bhobh – Painting at the End of an Era, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa (group - 2018); Zimbabwe Meets Italy, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare (group - 2018).
Pictured: Gareth Nyandoro, Pfumvudza / Maize - Cob Steelers (detail), (2021), Kuchekacheka (paper and ink on wood panel), 165 x 202 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary.
