Portia Zvavahera is one of the outstanding artists of her generation. Born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1985, she has developed a unique combination of print/painting techniques to register a private world of dreams, fantasies and figural constructions. She received her art education in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, and has become recognised in the past decade as one of the foremost representatives of African figuration, showcased at the Venice Biennale in 2022, and in a number of commercial gallery exhibitions in South Africa, the US and the UK. 

This new publication accompanies Portia Zvavahera's major exhibition Zvakazarurwa which was first shown at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge and now showing at Fruitmarket until 25.05.25.

This is the artists first solo exhibition in a public gallery in Europe, curated by Tamar Garb. The book 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. The focus will be on the theme of dreams, fantasy and figuration, and large details will highlight Zvavahera’s innovative amalgamation of printmaking and painting techniques that build rich surfaces to create her private cosmology of creatures and contexts.

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.

This richly illustrated book will open up for the reader how Zvavahera’s works emerge from dreams; being figurative without being illustrative, registering a world of feminine experience and fantasy.

Softcover
164 pages
41 colour illustrations
ISBN: 9781904561705
Dimensions: 290 x 230mm