Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa
22 October 2024 – 16 February 2025, 11am – 5pm
Presenting new and recent paintings, this exhibition will be Portia Zvavahera’s first solo exhibition at a public gallery in Europe. Drawing on southern African culture, Christian iconography, traditional European painting and African printmaking, this exhibition will show artworks informed by the artist’s own dreams and the spiritual traditions she grew up with as a child.
Please note that on Wednesday 26 February Kettle’s Yard will be closing at 3.30pm for a private event. Last entry to the house will be at 2.15pm. Thank you.
These semi-autobiographical works use layers of colour and texture and various artistic techniques including batik stencilling, block-printing, drawing and painting with ink.
The exhibition is organised by Kettle’s Yard in collaboration with the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, where it will travel from 1 March – 25 May 2025. It is curated by Tamar Garb, Durning Lawrence Professor in History of Art at University College London. A new publication will accompany the exhibition.
Reviews & Visitor Feedback
This rich and impressive body of work makes for an intense experience, as we encounter the real and the imagined, but never quite know which is which.
About Portia Zvavahera
Portia Zvavahera was born in 1985 in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she currently lives and works. She studied at the BAT Visual Arts Studio, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, from 2003 to 2004. She then received a diploma in fine arts from Harare Polytechnic in 2006.
Ndakaoneswa murima, the artist’s first solo presentation in New York and her second with the gallery, was on view at David Zwirner, New York in 2021. Zvavahera’s first exhibition, Ndakavata pasi ndikamutswa nekuti anonditsigira, was at the David Zwirner Gallery’s London location in 2020.
The artist has presented several solo exhibitions with Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2014–2023), and a solo exhibition with Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles (2017). The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, presented her solo exhibition Under My Skin in 2010, and in 2020, the Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius, held her solo exhibition Walk of Life. She was invited to show her work as part of the Zimbabwean Pavilion exhibition Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. In 2022, her work was included in the 59th Venice Biennale.
Exhibition Events
Panel Discussion: Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa
Join us in the Kettle's Yard house for a discussion on our current exhibition Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa, with exhibition curator Tamar Garb and a panel of guest speakers.
Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa Exhibition Tour
Join Curator Guy Haywood for an introduction to Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa.
Interview with Portia Zvavahera
Find out more
7 things about 'Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa'
Discover the Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa exhibition in this blog post, with 7 key things to know.
New Publication
A new publication includes reproductions of brand new works created on the occasion of this exhibition alongside a selection of recent and older paintings which reveal the depth and richness of Zvavahera’s practice. A new essay from curator Tamar Garb centres around an extensive conversation between Garb, Sinazo Chiya, Tandazani Dhlakama and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela discussing Zvavahera’s engagement with eros, intimacy and female-centred experience.
Access
- The galleries, where exhibitions are shown, and all areas of the Clore Learning Studio (level -1), the Research Space (level 1) and the Ede Room (level 2) are fully accessible.
- We have wheelchair accessible toilets on the lower ground (level -1), ground and first floor (level 1).
- There is a lift giving access to all floors located past the galleries, just beside the Clore Learning Studio on the ground floor.
- Kettle’s Yard welcomes assistance and service dogs in all areas.
- We have large-print versions of the wall text available.
- We can lend visitors small folding seats for taking around exhibitions or using at non-seated events. Please ask a Visitor Assistant for help finding a seat.
This exhibition has been kindly supported by
Kettle’s Yard Portia Zvavahera Supporters Circle:
Carol Atack and Alex van Someren
Salim Currimjee
Emma Davis
Sabine Jaccaud
Katie Robyns
and those who wish to remain anonymous.
