Portia Zvavahera (born 1985) is a Zimbabwean painter.

Early life

Zvavahera was born in Harare,

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, in 1985. She studied at the BAT Visual Art Studios at the

National Gallery of Zimbabwe The National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) is a gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe, dedicated to the presentation and conservation of Zimbabwe's contemporary art and visual heritage. The original National Gallery of Rhodesia was designed and directed by ...

from 2003 to 2004 and obtained a diploma in visual arts from Harare Polytechnic in 2006, where she was taught by the Zimbabwean artist and printmaker Chiko Chazunguza. Many of her paintings incorporate block-printed elements using oil-based printing ink.

Career

In 2009, Zvavahera was an artist-in-residence at Greatmore Studios in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa. Zvavahera represented Zimbabwe at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 as part of the exhibition ''Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs''. She joined Stevenson, South Africa, in 2013. Previously, Zvavahera exhibited her work at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and at Gallery Delta. She won South Africa's Tollman Award for the Visual Arts in 2013 and South Africa's FNB (First National Bank) Art Prize in 2014. In 2017, Zvavahera participated in a three-month residency at the

Gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom, supported by the Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean (ICAIO).

Exhibitions

Source: * Kettle’s Yard - Cambridge, United Kingdom (October 2024 to February 2025) * CaixaForum - Madrid - Revered and Feared. Feminine Power in Art and Belief (2024) * Shah Garg Foundation - New York - Making Their Mark (2023) *

Museum de Fundatie Museum de Fundatie () is a museum for the visual arts in Zwolle, Netherlands. Museum de Fundatie forms part of the Hannema-de Stuers Foundation, to which Kasteel het Nijenhuis in Heino also belongs. Museum de Fundatie possesses a collection of vis ...

- Zwolle, Netherlands - Brave New World: 16 Painters for the 21st Century, (2023) * Musée d’Art Moderne - Paris, France The Power of My Hands (2021) *

David Zwirner David Zwirner (born October 23, 1964) is a German art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Paris. His gallery represents over seventy artists. Early life and education Zwirner wa ...

- London, United Kingdom and New York, USA (2020–21) * Pérez Art Museum - Miami, USA - Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M Pérez Collection (2020) * El Espacio 23 - Miami, USA - Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection (2020) * The Warehouse - Dallas Psychic Wounds: On Art and Trauma (2020) * 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of Congo - Future Genealogies: Stories from the Equatorial Line (2019) * De 11 Lijnen - Belgium - A dialogue with Gustav Klimt (2019 - 2020) *

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

- Hacer Noche/Crossing Night (2018) *

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, also referred to simply as ''The Garage Museum'', is a privately funded art gallery in Moscow, Russia. It was founded by Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich as the ''Garage Center for Contemporary Culture'' ...

- Moscow - The Fabric of Felicity (2018) * Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town- Five Bhobh – Painting at the End of an Era (2018) * 10th

Berlin Biennale The Berlin Biennale (full name: Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art) is a contemporary art exhibition, which has been held at various locations in Berlin, Germany, every two to three years since 1998. ...

- We don't need another hero (2018) *

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

- The Contested Body (2017) *

- steirischer herbst festival, Graz - Body Luggage (2016) * Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Mauritius - I Love You Sugar Kane (2016) * Le Brass Cultural Centre of Forest, Belgium - African Odyssey (2015) * Foundation De 11 - Lijnen, Oudenburg - Liberated Subjects: Present Tense (2015) * Kunsthalle Faust - Hannover, Germany - Shifting Africa - What the Future Holds, Mediations Biennale (2014)

References

External links

Gallery Delta profile

Stevenson profile

Gasworks profile
21st-century Zimbabwean painters 21st-century Zimbabwean women artists {{DEFAULTSORT:Zvavahera, Portia 1985 births Living people