Size:241x 279mm
hardcover
112 pages
A collection of works by Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera. This book will be published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the New York gallery "David Zwirner" from November to December 2021. This expressive collection of paintings by the author was created during a period of the most intense solitude and collective suffering on the planet.
The author shapes the emotions that arise from another world or other dimension that transcend everyday life and thought in the paintings. The colorful collection of images is rooted in the foundations of life and death, pain and joy, isolation and connection, love and loss, and more for beings on Earth like us.
The author depicts figurative and fantastical scenes using powerful visual vocabulary, including women, their own families and changing creatures. Some of them also include floral patterns that they have designed themselves, as well as intricate patterns that are incorporated from traditional Zimbabwean designs. The unique process of alternating painting and printing ultimately becomes an image of complex emotions captured within the interrelationship of tension and liberation, resulting in a very personal collection of works that carefully explore the true nature of humanity. "It's me who is in the painting (...) I can't just talk about myself” says the author.
The book includes 24 beautifully printed paintings, close-up images of them, and exhibition scenes, as well as a newly written essay by curator Meredith Brown and an interview with the author by author Allie Biswas, and an overview of works produced since 2017.
*Due to transportation issues, there may be some scratches and dirt.