Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, Scotland
March 1–June 1, 2025
Zvakazarurwa, meaning “revelations” in Shona, the language in which Portia Zvavahera thinks and dreams, is curated by Tamar Garb. A recognized authority on contemporary art from Africa as well as the work of women artists and feminist aesthetics, Garb has followed Zvavahera’s practice for some years and made several visits to her studio in the garden of her house in Harare in the course of preparing the exhibition. Working closely with Zvavahera, Garb has selected a sequence of paintings rooted in the most recent in the evolution of her image making since 2012.
The earliest works in the exhibition combine images of childbirth and motherhood with repetitive mark making and pattern. They are visceral, even shocking. Recent works are equally direct, but are more closely aligned to particular dreams. Works made in 2024 specifically for this exhibition relate to one particular recurring dream in which the artist struggles to protect her family from malign forces– what she calls ”bad energies”–that take the form of rats.
Zvavahera’s paintings are beautiful, complex surfaces which claim our attention immediately, yet also stay with us over time, unfurling in our mind’s eye as we take the artist’s singular vision with us out of the gallery and into the world.
Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985, Portia Zvavahera is emerging as one of the outstanding artists of her generation. She has developed a painting practice that combines a unique combination of techniques–painting, printmaking and batik–to construct a visually beguiling personal cosmology featuring figures, creatures, shapes and shadows that first appear to her in her dreams.
The exhibition was curated by Tamar Garb in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, where it was previously on view From October 22, 2024–February 16, 2025.
Learn more at Fruitmarket.
