Portia Zvavahera
Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera’s large-scale painterly compositions mix printmaking and painting techniques to record scenes, human figures and ghostly creatures that visit her in the otherworldly plane that opens up when the conscious mind goes to rest.
Portia Zvavahera, Vanegumi ramazana vachawa, 2024
© Portia Zvavahera. Courtesy Stevenson and David Zwirner. Photo by Jack Hems.
“Transferring the energy of my dreams into my paintings has helped me heal myself and remove the negative energy from my nightmares. Painting my dreams allows me to resolve experiences in my life.”
Zvavahera has developed a distinctive artistic language that embodies the visible and invisible force fields born from her own “inner battles.” Her work, which weaves together personal and collective experience, is animated by a syncretic blend of Christian traditions and the spiritual dimensions of Shona culture in Zimbabwe.
The exhibition in WIELS encompasses early paintings exploring themes akin to the artist’s experience of womanhood, dreamscapes incorporating elements of her surroundings such as leaves and lace, all the way to her most recent venture into ceramics. While hinting at traditions of Zimbabweanfiguration, textile patterns and motifs of religious iconography, the work makes space for a shared, affective vocabulary of loss, love, grief, and joy.
Curator: Sofia Dati
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Fridericianum, Kassel; David Zwirner, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Hong Kong; and Stevenson, Cape Town, Amsterdam.