Portia Zvavahera : Ndakavata pasi ndikamutswa nekuti anonditsigira

15 Sep-31 Oct 2020

Overview

David Zwirner is pleased to present Ndakavata pasi ndikamutswa nekuti anonditsigira, an exhibition of new paintings by the Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera. The title translates from Shona to English as ‘I took my rest in sleep and then I awoke for He sustained me.’ On view in The Upper Room at the gallery’s London location, this will be Zvavahera’s first solo presentation in Europe. In her paintings, Zvavahera gives form to emotions that manifest from other realms and dimensions 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 realised through layers of vibrant colour 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.