Portia Zvavahera @ David Zwirner, Los Angeles - 'Zvibereko zvemweya wangu' Exhibition

Portia Zvavahera

Zvibereko zvemweya wangu

David Zwirner, Los Angeles

November 14, 2025 – February 7, 2026

Portia Zvavahera

Takasunungurwa, 2025 

© Portia Zvavahera. Courtesy Stevenson and David Zwirner

David Zwirner presents Zvibereko zvemweya wangu, its third solo exhibition with the Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera. Taking place at the gallery’s 606 N Western Avenue location in Los Angeles, this presentation features a series of new works that continues to develop Zvavahera’s experiments with different painting processes and subject matter by joining her carefully charted dream worlds with her lived experience and daily rituals. Portia Zvavahera expands her practice with familiar motifs and narratives; her works are populated by symbolic creatures that become powerful conduits for the interpretation of spiritual visions and the contemplation of our earthly existence. 

In her paintings, Portia Zvavahera gives form to emotions beyond the domains of everyday life and thought. Her vivid imagery is rooted in the cornerstones of our earthly existence—life and death, pain and pleasure, isolation and connection, and love and loss. These deeply personal visions are realized through layers of vibrant color and ornate, veil-like patterns that the artist builds up into palimpsestic surfaces through a combination of expressive brushwork and elaborate printmaking techniques. Zvavahera’s compositions draw on particular traditions of figuration in past and present Zimbabwe, first expressed in the work of Thomas Mukarobgwa in the 1960s, while also pointing to postwar artistic practices that probe the nature of the human condition.

Zvavahera’s latest exhibition powerfully continues this exploration of the human condition. Themes of love, loss, fear, family, and protection recur throughout this new series of paintings, mirroring her broader practice. The show title Zvibereko zvemweya wangu loosely translates from Shona as the “fruits of my soul,” aptly describing the intense creative output behind these works. These monumental paintings are among her most energetic to date, deeply inspired by her love for family and, particularly, the passing of her late grandmother. Here, Portia Zvavahera resumes her study of dreamscapes, delving into subject matter that women, especially mothers, have experienced across time. She strips away the protective veneer of modern society, exposing core emotions that relate to the profundity of life and death. Incorporating new motifs like vessels, trees, water lilies, and snakes, Zvavahera’s paintings guide viewers on journeys, telling abstracted stories about the strength within the maternal and matriarchal world, where reality and imagination merge.

Shona is the artist’s native language, which she speaks at home; titles in Shona are provided with a translation only when Portia Zvavahera feels that the English words suffice. Experimenting with batik and block printing, oil sticks, and acrylic paints, Zvavahera's canvases are applied with layers, and then, like dreams, unfold into camouflaged compositions rich in symbolism and psychological depth. Within Zvibereko zvemweya wangu, Portia Zvavahera portrays small figures, children unbound by the canvas and surrounded by protecting arms and feathered veils painted with leaves, using a traditional wax-resist batik method, in works such as Kubuditswa muhari (2025). Others like Kubudiswa (redeemed) (2025) show a series of bowing figures—a community seemingly praying as a form of collective strength, demonstrating their power in numbers.

Artist Portia Zvavahera

Portia Zvavahera was born in 1985 in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she currently lives and works. She studied at the BAT Visual Arts Studio, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, from 2003 to 2005. She then received a diploma in fine arts from Harare Polytechnic in 2006.

Portia Ndakaoneswa murima, the artist’s first solo presentation in New York and her second with the gallery, was on view at David Zwirner, New York, in 2021. Zvavahera’s first exhibition with the gallery, Ndakavata pasi ndikamutswa nekuti anonditsigira, was at its London location in 2020.

The artist has presented several solo exhibitions with Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2014–2020), and a solo exhibition with Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles (2017). The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, presented her solo exhibition Under My Skin in 2010, and in 2020, the Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius, held her solo exhibition Walk of Life. She was invited to show her work as part of the Zimbabwean Pavilion exhibition Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. In 2022, her work was included in the 59th Venice Biennale.

In 2024, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, England, presented Portia Zvakazarurwa, a solo exhibition of the artist’s work organized in collaboration with Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, where the show traveled in 2025. Curated by Tamar Garb, this exhibition marked Zvavahera’s first solo institutional presentation in the United Kingdom. Also in 2024, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, presented Imba yerumbidzo (House of praise), as the fifteenth iteration of its Open Space solo exhibition series. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, opened Hidden Battles / Hondo dzakavanzika, Zvavahera's first institutional solo exhibition in the United States, in August 2025. The artist also opened her first solo institutional exhibition in Germany at Fridericianum, Kassel, on September 27, 2025.

DAVID ZWIRNER LOS ANGELES

616 N Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

www.davidzwirner.com

Gabriel Choto @ ADA / Contemporary Art Gallery, Accra – Deep, Deep Down In The Belly Of The Earth

Gabriel Choto

Deep, Deep Down In The Belly Of The Earth

ADA / Contemporary Art Gallery, Accra

April 6 – May 28, 2023

GABRIEL CHOTO 

I Hope You Know, 2023

Oil on paper

© Gabriel Tendai Choto, 

courtesy of ADA / Contemporary Art Gallery

“Grief is just another form of love. The sense of sorrow and grief become the bricks I use to make a home within me, and love always opens a door in me, allowing the fresh air in and bringing with it a sense of hope. That emotion is what I try to capture in my work.”

- Gabriel Tendai Choto.

ADA contemporary art gallery presents Deep, Deep Down In The Belly Of The Earth, a solo exhibition by UK-based Zimbabwean artist, GABRIEL TENDAI CHOTO (b.1995).

Gabriel Choto presents large-scale wooden windows in oil on Somerset paper and delves into deeply personal narratives of grappling with grief and depression due to suppressed emotions shaped by trapped, constructed cultural norms where it is not socially acceptable for men to express their feelings.

The exhibition’s title is inspired by a song called Stimela by the renowned South African musician and composer, Hugh Masekela. The eleventh line of the song’s live introduction Deep, deep down in the belly of the earth, captures the political unrest in then apartheid South Africa and suggests grief, pain and empathy for struggling Black men, immigrants and labourers who were not encouraged to express moments of weakness outwardly. Connecting the dots within his own life and relating with the characters in the song, Gabriel Choto takes his viewers on a metaphoric journey of emotional transparency.

The expanse of space in each painting alludes to glimmers of hope amid long periods of suppressed emotions and the daily struggle with mental health. Gabriel Choto places himself as the subject in most of his compositions, unveiling difficult periods in his life. The surface of the oil paintings is imbued with semi-hyper-real elements, accentuating the strategic use of negative space, and soulful beiges take on a therapeutic hue, the perfect muted background to contain the catharsis of each character.

Deep, Deep Down In The Belly Of The Earth lays bare Gabriel Choto’s vulnerabilities. It builds up layers of aesthetic compositions as simple as the experience and as complex as the emotions he tries to evoke.

GABRIEL CHOTO

Gabriel Tendai Choto, born in 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe and raised in Bradford, currently lives and works in West Yorkshire, England. After completing his Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University (formerly Leeds College of Art) in 2012, Choto gained a BAFA in Drawing from Camberwell College of Art (UAL) London in 2014. He has recently completed an MFA at Central St Martins in London, UK. Gabriel Choto has had solo exhibitions at FNB Art Joburg: GALLERyLABs (2020) and 'Kumba' at Anima Mundi Gallery, UK (2021). Selected group exhibitions to include Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London (2021), 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House (2018), INTERSECTION, 2018 Tyburn Gallery London, FBA Futures, Mall Galleries, London, UK (2018); Flock, GX Gallery, London, UK (2017); Blxckout Revolution: The Exhibition at 198 Gallery in London (2017); BAME at the Hotel Elephant Gallery in London, UK (2016); and Long Live the New Flesh at Tower Gallery, London, UK (2015). In 2018, Gabriel Choto was selected for the Clyde & Co Art Award. And the winner of the Clifford Chance Printmaking Purchase Prize in 2019.

ADA / Contemporary Art Gallery

Villaggio Vista, North Airport Road, 

Airport Residential Area, Accra, Ghana

www.ada-accra.com

Gareth Nyandoro @ Van Doren Waxter, NYC - MAWORKS

Gareth Nyandoro: MAWORKS

Van Doren Waxter, New York

Through August 6, 2021

GARETH NYANDORO

Kubatana Fence Makers (detail), 2021 

Ink on cut paper mounted on canvas

320 x 260 cm

© Gareth Nyandoro, courtesy Van Doren Waxter

Van Doren Waxter presents an exhibition of new mixed media works by Zimbabwean artist GARETH NYANDORO. Titled MAWORKS, this is the artist’s second exhibition in New York, and features four large-scale pieces (measuring over 100 inches) mounted on canvas alongside recent small panel pieces. The artist is appreciated internationally for his vivid, sensitive compositions. 

The foundation of Gareth Nyandoro’s imagery remains anchored in the observation of daily life in Harare and its surroundings -its storefronts and markets, its street life and outskirts, which are all meaningful sites of labor, production, and commercial exchange. The artist pictures these essential scenes using sharp blades in his signature and painstaking ink and cut paper technique (‘kucheka-cheka’, after the Sona verb ‘to cut’), which are mounted on raw cut canvas; these unstretched works often spill out of their two-dimensional format onto the floor, which conveys openness and accessibility in connecting with the space of the viewer. 

Gareth Nyandoro’s distinctive practice – which negotiates printing, drawing, painting and installation techniques – is stimulated by the energy and liveliness of Harare’s commercial activity, and his sensitive portrayal of its workers and laborers. In these recent works, Gareth Nyandoro presents images of everyday scenes observed during the past year’s pandemic. He has titled the show MAWORKS – which is a colloquialism; in street language, it roughly translates to mean working or producing for the everyday, and making what you need to survive, and to be able to carry on.

In the panoramic work Kubatana Fence Makers (all works dated 2021), two workhands wearing safety-yellow garments are seen carefully clipping a metal wire fence; one figure is wearing a mask while the other has it pulled down to around his neck as he cuts with a pair of carefully held scissors. In another, titled Nyange, Gareth Nyandoro depicts a worker as he walks with a large shovel carried over his shoulder, next to a sign advertising river sand. The artist focuses on scenes of informal labor, in which people do what is necessary to earn and make a daily living, and to continue to work with grace and dignity - what the artist has described as “a series of artworks that tell a story of struggle and persistence to survive.”

GARETH NYANDORO (b. 1982, Bikita, Zimbabwe) lives in and works in Harare. His recent solo exhibitions include “RUWA” at Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (2020) and “JUGGLING SKILLS” at SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2019). Gareth Nyandoro co-represented Zimbabwe at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and is the winner of the Emerging Voices Award in Art from the Financial Times / Oppenheimier Funds, London. The artist studied at Harare Polytechnic College and the Chinhoyi University of Technology (Zimbabwe). Gareth Nyandoro was a resident at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2014 - 2015) and SAM Art Projects, Paris (2016). Other previous solo exhibitions include: “Stalls of Fame” (2017) at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; “Gareth Nyandoro”, Galerie 23, Stichting Beeldende Kunst, Amsterdam (2015); “Weaving Life”, Gallery Delta, Harare (2013); and “Mutariri”, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare (2012). The artist is represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

VAN DOREN WAXTER

23 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021

www.vandorenwaxter.com

Contemporary art in Zimbabwe @ Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town - Five Bhobh: Painting at the end of an Era

Five Bhobh: Painting at the end of an Era

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town

12 September 2018 – 31 March 2019

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) presents an exhibition of contemporary painting from Zimbabwe. The show features 28 artists from Zimbabwe who are creating works during a time of transition into an alternative dispensation.

“Present-day painting comes at a heightened socio-political moment. Recent events in Zimbabwe have left many asking, “Where are we going? What comes next? How do we get there?” For some the journey may not be a comfortable one. It may require coming back, picking up where one left off, or unravelling forgotten layers of the past. Using various tones and gestures, the artists in this exhibition highlight the pressing questions emanating from a moment of great angst. They interrogate present-day circumstances, reimagine manifold futures, and recount entangled histories,” explains curator Tandazani Dhlakama.

The name of the show, Five Bhobh (pronounced five bob), was inspired by the average fare needed to journey locally by kombi (minibus) in Zimbabwe.

“As soon as you are crammed in, four in each row, the conductor will announce “Five bhobh!” or “Two pa dollar!” You may hear the tinkling of coins being collected and observe lower denominations of notes unfolding from sweaty palms, pockets and blouses. Monotonously shoulders in the front rows are tapped as money is moved forward and change is negotiated until it reaches the hwindi (bus conductor). By then the engine is roaring and the driver is negotiating his exit from the bustling terminus. Passengers may begin to converse. Matters of everyday life in Zimbabwe are discussed always in codes with a diverse array of figurative language. They have paid their dues, invested in the future, and are waiting expectantly to move forward,” Tandazani Dhlakama continues.

The participating artists in this exhibition mark the end of an era, offering foresights into an alternative dispensation. The metaphor of the kombi is like the nation of Zimbabwe; the artists its passengers, who engage in social commentary through calculated gesture.

Painting has a long history in Zimbabwe and this exhibition provides a synopsis of the medium as it applies to the country today, challenging traditional ideas around how painting is defined. In some cases, the painting is stripped to its most basic form, exposing threadbare canvas. At other times, paint is mixed into substances such as silicone, synthetic hair, and wood. For decades artists from this country have manipulated this medium as a way of subtly articulating complex issues, speaking in intricate, allegorical codes.

In the lead up to the show, two Zimbabwean artists - Kufa Makwarara and Richard Mudariki, both residents of Cape Town – occupy half of the museum’s third floor as resident artists. The museum believes it is important to offer artists space to allow them the freedom to make significant works for the exhibition and beyond.

Exhibition Curator: Tandazani Dhlakama

Exhibiting artists:

• Admire Kamudzengere

• Anthony Bumhira

• Berry Bickle

• Charles Bhebhe

• Cosmos Shiridzinomwa

• Duncan Wylie

• Gareth Nyandoro

• Gillian Rosselli

• Greg Shaw

• Helen Teede

• Isheanesu Dondo

• Janet Sirigwani Nyabeze

• John Kotze

• Kreshia Mukwazhi

• Kufa Makwarara

• Mostaff Muchawaya

• Percy Manyonga

• Portia Zvavahera

• Rashid Jogee

• Richard Mudariki

• Shalom Kufakwatenzi

• Simon Back

• Tatenda Magaisa

• Tawanda Reza

• Thakor Patel

• Troy Makaza

• Wallen Mapondera

• Kudzanai Violet Hwami

ZEITZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICA - ZEITZ MOCAA

Silo District, South Arm Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8002

zeitzmocaa.museum