In little over 12 months, mega-gallery David Zwirner has announced representation of no fewer than four influential North American painters: Dana Schutz, Katherine Bernhardt, Steven Shearer, and the estate of minimalist master Robert Ryman, recently won over from Pace Gallery.
Each artist represents a uniquely different brand of their mutually preferred medium and adds to the gallery's already formidable and diverse roster of the giants of contemporary painting, including Kerry James Marshall, Marlene Dumas, Luc Tuymans, Chris Ofili, Mamma Andersson, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, to name but a few.
Amidst this array of high-profile artists, Zimbabwean painter Portia Zvavahera joined the gallery in April following a small solo presentation at their London gallery last autumn.
Indeed, Zvavahera's rise to mega-gallery stardom has happened somewhat more quietly, though she is now presenting her debut solo exhibition in New York at Zwirner's 19th Street gallery.
The exhibition is titled Ndakaoneswa murima, which translates from Shona to English rather ominously as 'I was made to see the dark side'. It is a fitting title for an artist whose work grapples with the nature of the human condition and spiritual revelations that appear to her through her dreams and nightmares.