On Sunday First Floor Gallery Harare presented Grey Spaces, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude’s much anticipated first solo project in the capital since 2017.
It is no surprise that many art enthusiasts came through for this showpiece considering that the artiste is one of the most successful painters in the country.
Grey Spaces is an exhibition of exceptional quality which every art fan should definitely take a look at.
After more than a year in lockdown, the artist known for incisive and poignant social satire, reflects on his own life with a dramatic new suite of major paintings and a unique installation project to reflect on being 33 years old as an age demanding insight and wisdom.
His dramatic and satirical paintings, based on visualisation of Shona proverbs and contemporary urban slang, defy characterization shifting with restless energy between readily identifiable symbols, abstraction and surrealism.
On this particular exhibition, one can easily get lost in the artworks which are not only full of colour, but also take a lifeform of their own.
While responding emotionally to the issues in his own environment, as a painter, Nyaude also puts himself in conversation with broad ideas about art and art history locally and internationally.
The artiste has works have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, with exhibitions in Shanghai, China, Berlin, London, San Francisco and New York. He has works in the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, the Rubell Family Collection and Museum of Contemporary African Art al Maaden in Marrakech among others.
He is one of the few Zimbabwean artists with international reputations who has remained committed to exhibiting in Zimbabwe and sharing his work with local audiences as a priority.
“For me, audiences in Harare are my inspiration and my truth. Exhibiting around the world is fantastic, but I know that I can only truly be understood at home,” says Nyaude.
