Locardia Ndandarika is an internationally renown Shona artist from Zimbabwe. Locardia Ndandarika was born in Bindura, Zimbabwe in the year 1945.
As a youngster she made her first sculptures out of clay. Her favorite subject matter was animals.
For a brief period she was married to another Shona artist, Joseph Ndandarika. Joseph helped push her art to a professional level and Locardia was able to become a full time professional artist!
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Locardia Ndandarika does a great job at finding interesting patterns to repeat in her work. Some great examples of this are her portrayals of bird feathers and also human hair styles.
Collen Nyanhongo is a Shona artist born in Zimbabwe in the year 1972 . He is the son of first generation Shona artist Claude Nyanhongo.
Collen Nyanhongo is unusual as a Shona artist as he works in an abstract style. He also works with the figure on occasion.
Nyanhongo is collected internationally and has shown his work on the continents of Africa, Europe, and North America.
The artist works mainly with opal and spring stone. The smooth part of the rock is a key element in his work. He achieves this by heating the rock and then infuse it with polish.
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In this clip we watch Collen Nyanhongo at work and also watch an interview with the artist:
Its great to see someone break the mold in the Nyanhongo family. Most artists work with the figure or some kind of representational realism. Collen Nyanhongo work is more about the process of creating his stone sculpture.
Onias Mupumha is talented Shona artist renowned for his work with floral and botanical imagery in sculpture. Onias Mupumha was born in Rusape, Zimbabwe in the year 1978.
Mupumha learned to be an artist from his uncle, Richard Mupumha. His uncle helped him gain world wide clientele.
The artist is now based out of Harare, Zimbabwe.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip a brief interview with Onias Mupumha talking about working with flowers and cobalt stone:
I enjoy the fact that this artist is one of few shona artists specializing in floral and leaf works. Mupumha has fun with shapes and leaves are very animated and filled with energy as if blowing in the wind.
Maynard Maenzanise is a contemporary Shona artist born in 1964 in Rusape, Zimbabwe. After finishing his general schooling the artist found work as a security guard. Maenzanise continued to create his artwork on the side. He soon took the plunge and slowly began to sell his artwork at local venues eventually quitting his guard job and becoming a full time artist.
Price range information: Works range from $300 to $3,000.
What I enjoy most about Maynard Maenzanise is his ability to produce what could be termed traditional shona art, simple shaped highly expressive characters. Maenzanise can also switch to more detailed highly realistic work.
The artist also sculpts remarkable usable art such as the bookends in the gallery. Another great fact about the artist is that he works in wood as well as the traditional stones found in the area.
Fanizani Akuda was one of the first generation Shona artists of Zimbabwe. Ethnically he was of Chewa decent. Fanizani Akuda was born in the Mteya, Zambia in the year 1932. Though he was not ethnically a member of the Shona tribe, he is a recognized as a shona artist.
Akuda grew up in Rhodesia and worked as a general laborer picking cotton and working on various farm jobs. Eventually he took a job with the farm of Tom Blomefield of the renowned Tengenenge sculpture park. The farm was known for its deposits of great carving stone. Eventually Akuda worked in the quarry of the farm, took up sculpting on his own, then retired and became a professional artist.
His signature character is a whistling person. These are very unique and due to a correctly placed hole on the head, a viewer can actually make sound that is similar to a whistle by putting your thumb over the mouth. You tap it and it sounds like a whistle! From an artistic view its tough to imagine a more animated sculpture than one that produces noise. Similar to kinetic art like Alexander Calder, but with more participation for the viewer.
Fanizani Akuda passed away in 2011.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
For me a true work of art is something that can be appreciated by children. A work like this is dynamic enough to capture the attention of both children and adults!
In this clip a brief visit to the studio of Akuda. We meet him and view many smaller works:
Colleen Madamombe was a Shona artist born in Harare, Zimbabwe in the year 1964. Colleen Madamombe earned a diploma in fine arts from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. For the artist’s subject matter she enjoyed portraying the strong African women. She often worked portraying women doing something of their daily life including chores like carrying water, going to the market, and even having a child.
In the artist’s native of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe International Film Festival the first place trophy after one of her characters.
Colleen Madamombe won the Best Female Artist of Zimbabwe three times.
In 1986 she married a fellow artist named Fabian Madamombe. Before she met him Colleen worked as a painter but after helping her husband with some projects Colleen began to produce sculptures. Below is an example of a mother and child sculpture by Fabian Madamombe.
Colleen Madamombe passed away in 2009.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip we visit the studio of Colleen Madamombe:
Edward Chiwawa is one of the first generation of Shona sculptors and artists born in Guruve, Zimbabwe in the year 1935.
Began sculpting at the age of 35 years of age in 1970.
Chiwawa was able to learn and master his craft with the help of Henry Munyaradzi, another well respected Shona artist who happened to be his uncle.
In this clip we visit the artist for a brief interview. A happy fellow indeed!
His favorite theme and subject is the sun and the moon. Chiwawa works in a very stylistic and abstract manner. For the sun and the moon which are represented by simple circular shapes.
Amos Supuni was a shona that was actually born in Malawi in the year 1970. Months after he was born his family moved to Zimbabwe. Got involved with sculpting as a teenager thanks in part to a Catholic nun who worked hard to furnish supplies for the youngsters. His breakthrough happened in large part due to the Catholic Silvera House Center which trained people for jobs in the community.
Whilst living with the nuns Supuni was able to travel to another African country named Tanzania. Here he learned how to produce prints and to work with fabrics and the art of batik.
The artist enjoyed teaching the art of sculpture to others.
Amos Supuni had came to the United States and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The artist was killed whilst looking for food to feed his family in 2008. The artist was in the country of Mozambique. He was 38 years of age. It was a shock to people that he passed away so young.
price range information: Sorry none available
The fact that this artist died so young should inspire us all to work hard and savor every moment of life!
Nesbert Mukomberanwa was born in Buhera, Zimbabwe in the year 1969. He learned to sculpt from his famous uncle, a first generation shona artist named Nicholas Mukomberanwa. The artist studied under his renowned uncle for two years before striking out on his own.
The family has at least 8 professional artists so look for their name to come frequently here the next couple of weeks. Gotta love those art family dynasties!
price range information: Works range from $500 to $4,000.
Nesbert Mukomberanwa works with the figure often. Many works include the mother and child theme. What I love most about his work is the floral work. Its odd that we find a shona artist or Inuit artist work that shows us a flower. Very elegant and unique at the same, just like a real flower!
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