adminStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
Zimbabwe is proudest of its remarkable international art exports which are across continents in various places of significance for permanency.
The country boasts astonishing fine art works erected or hung from the Indian ocean Island of Lamu, Addis Ababa, Pretoria, Cape Town, Sidney, Melbourne, Soule,Beijing, Hong Kong, Washington DC, New York, Quebec, Toronto, London, Prague, Moscow to mention a few, and most of the practitioners are still around but their creativity of such still is elusive on the mainland.
Lack of participation by majority of the established artists on any of our local platforms is seriously disturbing.
Very often when artists travel beyond our geographical boarders on their artistic endeavours they learn about how phenomenal their other Zimbabwean predecessors had made their mark or how the presence of their work had impacted on their space.
When one returns home and try to locate his/her international status colleagues, you find most of them around whilst others are elsewhere in the world on various platforms or living as art expatriates.
Some of those lurking around are deeply engaged in search of other international platforms or buyers / dealers.
Some will be idled with their few pieces hoping a buyer may come through or somebody will give them a shout that a buyer/dealer wants some work.
They do not take part or create local platforms and this unhealthy for the local art scene.
It is unreflective of the high end art and artists the country boasts at home and counter developmental.
The local art platforms have been left in the hands of mostly the young and upcoming and exceptional few senior or established practitioners.
This means there is very limited guidance and exemplary work of various media to continue producing outstanding artists.
One wonders what has come of our well senior/matured artists around. Is it that they feel they are beyond local participation?
Is it that the depressed local art market is not worthy showing their work? If so what happens to the local art pedigree, development and appreciation?
Previously up to the mid-1990s when there were a number of art galleries and open call exhibitions, all artists at various career levels used to mingle at exhibitions in participation.
There was much to make of the local art scene and attracted the market. Currently everything is much closed up with very limited platforms that include few open call shows with competition ideology which seems to be a discouraging factor for the matured practitioners.
There is now a tendency to have some art space operators as adjudicators of the art competitions and exhibitions beside their pedigree to deliberate on matured artists’ work.
This also seems to hinder their attraction into participation.
Senior/mature artists should be invited to exhibit as this will bring in more daring work that is not restricted by the ethos of competition, also, one or two of them could also part in the judging process.
Currently only the Wild Gueese Art Festival that has been taking centre stage at beginning of June for the past three years at the Wild Geese Lodge on the outskirts of Harare seems to be a bit favourable to some of the senior/mature artists.
A few have been sighted with smaller versions of their artworks at the only art festival in Zimbabwe entirely dedicated to “visual art” and the promotion of its market.
The Art Festival offers visual artists a free platform to showcase their work, converse directly with the buyers and the handling of their sales. In 2014 there were few international and private art spaces which were invited to spot what they could tap in.
It is not a gallery scenario but the festival has potential for practitioners to be engaged on all platform levels with various opportunities.
It vital that senior/mature artists find it crucial to be part of the local art scene in spite of the few anomalies for the cultivation of the young talent, maintaining the country’s art pedigree and assist in the revitalisation of the struggling industry.
Only our home based efforts from various stakeholders beginning with the established practitioners can jumpstart the recovery of the arts sector.
Online Reporter