2017 annual art exhibition winners

02 Feb, 2018 - 14:02 0 Views
2017 annual art exhibition winners

eBusiness Weekly

Arts Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Annual Art Exhibition (ZAAE) has been in existence since 1958, however, back then it was known as the Federal Art Exhibition during the Rhodesian era.
The purpose of the exhibition from the beginning was to provide an opportunity for local artists to execute their talent to the rest of the community at the same time enriching the audience with diversified voices.

The ZAAE continues to grow as proven by the past years showing how efficient it is towards local artists as it provides relevance, quality and authenticity to the theme provided.
The exhibition has managed to give artists a chance to meet more influential people and build contacts in the art world.

However, these events are not the only way for them to benefit as galleries also participate and host events such as the Harare Conversation linking with the ZAAE that allow artists to engage with fellow artists.

The 2017 Zimbabwe Annual Art Exhibition was entitled Form and Colour and it gave participating artists the privilege to create whatever they desired.
The purpose of this exhibition was to help reflect over the past 60 years which the National Gallery of Zimbabwe has been operating.

Since it was celebrating its 60th anniversary this exhibition would serve to show how the state f Zimbabwean contemporary art has evolved and still continues to exist despite the economic challenges being faced by the country.

For the 2017, ZAAE three artists took the top three spot with Anusa Salanje obtaining the first prize winner, Johnson Zuze took the second prize while Semina Mpofu walked away with the third prize.
The prizes were awarded by the Minister of Sports, Arts and Recreation, Honourable Mr R. Kazembe Kazembe.

Anusa Salanje the first prize winner is a 42-year-old and a self-taught artist based in Harare. His work Armageddon suits which is made out of brick and metal won the first place. The artwork shows a man seated with his legs crossed.

Anusa has managed to exhibit his artworks in local galleries and also in Zambia. Since a number of his artworks have been exhibited in different galleries in Zimbabwe and outside Zimbabwe this has helped him to stretch out his works to different audiences.
He has stated how he does not specialise in any specific theme proving how free spirited he is. He also stated that his works are usually motivated by any current situation he might find himself in.

Johnson Zuze took home the second prize for his artwork titled the Camel and Friends (Zizi) which was inspired by an African folk-tale.

Born in Chitungizwa, Zuze’s view of art is astonishing. He takes note of how art can be a medium of expressing one’s visions and sentiments towards anything surrounding them.
This young artist has had success coming his way in the art industry. He has managed to win a number of awards and nominations.

In 2009, he won the 3rd prize for mixed media walls presented to him at the Gallery Delta; a first prize sculpture, No limit at the First Floor gallery; and in 2015, he got the second prize for Waste no Waste awarded by the Italian embassy.

The third prize winner was Semina Mpofu for her artwork titled Modzi dzemusango. Her mixed media artwork shows a cracked open fruit revealing all the seeds inside.
Semina was born in Bulawayo and has always had interest in sculptor that relates to women and their role in our society. Most of her works are made from wood, stone and metal and with every masterpiece she creates she always tries to acknowledge women as they play an important role within the family and generally in the community.

Mpofu has managed to win over 10 awards since 1993 and among these is the Graphic award which she obtained from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ).
In 2007, she obtained a National Arts Merit award for the outstanding 3 dimensional works. Some of her works are even part of the NGZ permanent collection, and also part of the Museum of Wedel permanent collection in Germany.

The annual exhibition has managed to provide a platform for Zimbabwean artists to showcase their talent to a wider audience in the art industry, at the same time serving as a revelation of how the art has contributed towards building a generation of Zimbabwean artists that are filled with the potential to shine at a global scale.

This also has a big advantage towards these aspiring artists as this enhances their business opportunities as they get to mingle with other business practitioners.
Singh (2016) states that one of the biggest advantage an artist has by having their works exhibited by a gallery is having access to a broad and loyal clientele.

Since it usually takes a long time for an aspiring artist to establish solid contacts with business companies and to gain the recognition that their work deserves this opportunity presented by the ZAAE will allow gallery directors and curators to know exactly who will be interested in your work.

One should take into consideration that all these artists have succumbed challenges along their great way to success before they become well established artists.

Through hard work and determination they were able to overcome any challenges faced along the way and have managed to work hand in hand with galleries and art museums in Zimbabwe and beyond borders at the same time promoting their works to the rest of the world.

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