November 4, 2022–Janurary 14th, 2023
Tiwani Contemporary opens group exhibition, I See You bringing together new and recent works by artists Virginia Chihota, Gideon Gomo, Masimba Hwati, Gareth Nyandoro and Portia Zvavahera.
I see You. Installation view (Courtesy, Tiwani Gallery)
The artists studied at the National Gallery School of Visual Arts and Design (formerly B.A.T. Visual Arts School), National Gallery of Zimbabwe during the 1990s in Harare, Zimbabwe. Chihota, Zvavahera, Hwati and Nyandoro received international attention with their participation in Pavillion of Zimbabwe’s 2013 and 2015 editions for La Biennale di Venezia , under the artistic direction of Raphael Chikukwa, now the Executive Director at National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
The artists remain close and actively maintain their international careers and profiles based in Harare, Addis Ababa and Vienna. Spanning painting, sculpture, performance and drawing, the exhibition captures the ways in which each artist internalises and responds to the notion of environment. Prior to the exhibition, Zvavahera and Gomo will be artists in residence at Guest Artist Space Foundation, Lagos a subsidiary of the Yinka Shonibare Foundation. Here, the two artists will research adire, tie-and-dying techniques, printmaking and sculpture and assemblages made from local materials respectively.
I see You. Installation view (Courtesy, Tiwani Gallery)
Connecting Harare to Lagos, the exhibition presents a unique consideration of intercontinental exchange and friendship through reflections that manifest materially featuring sonic, sculptural and two-dimensional works. As an expression of friendships cultivated over two decades between these artists, I See You is a marker of time, community, and a significant moment in the careers of these artists.
Together, the works present metaphysical attributes of this contemporary moment; physical environments and places become entangled with spiritual energies through conceptualizations of her home country. As interplays of screen-printed, flat forms, painterly markings and negative space, each work draws the viewer into Chihota’s dynamic patchworks of stenciled forms, broad strokes and radiant colours.