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!
Price range information: Sorry none available.
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.
Walter Mariga is a Shona artist from Zimbabwe and the son of first generation Shona artist Joram Mariga. Walter Mariga is renown or his work with the human figure and torso.
As you have noticed in many of these clips of shona artists, it takes many people to finish a work, mainly to execute the variety of textures found in shona art. Walter Mariga learned his skill by assisting his father in the polishing of stones. Walter than started doing his own work in 1993.
In this clip we view Walter Mariga at work whilst he gives us an interview on his artistic background and inspiration:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Be sure and check out my post on the artist’s father, first generation Shona artist Joram Mariga, who also worked with the figure.
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.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
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.
Richard Mupumha is a great Shona artist born in Rusape, Zimbabwe in the year 1963.Richard Mupumha is the uncle to Onias Mupumha. Its easy to see how Onias was influenced as both of the artists like to work with floral and botanical works. Richard Mupumha also makes wonderful sculptures of women.
Like Laurence Lowry, please take not of the hands as they are quite large, strong, and powerful.
Richard Mupumha began carving with wood and working with clay as the age of twelve years old.
The artist has a nephew named Richard Mupumha Junior who will be an upcoming post.
In this clip we view a great figurative work by Richard Mupumha. I love the play with the two faces in overall basic shape:
Price range information: Works range from $500 to $5,000. Like many Shona artists Mupumha works with serpentine stone.
What a great family of artists! More on this family coming soon!
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.
Bernard Matemera was another first generation Shona artist from Zimbabwe. Bernard Matemera was born in Guruve, Zimbabwe in the year 1946.
The artist spent much of his career based out of the sculpture park at Tengenege Sculpture Community.
The artist was working in the agriculture industry as a driver for tobacco farmers and he happened to meet the owner of the Tengenenge Sculpture Community where many other Shona artists resided due to the bountiful stone deposits located at the farm.
Matemera passed away in 2006.
The artist was internationally renown and collected.
Below a great example of Bernard Matemera:
A favorite theme was animals and wildlife. The artist carved mainly in serpentine.
Matemera was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City.
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:
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