Portia Zvavahera just won the FNB Art Prize (R 100.000,-). Her work will be shown in the FNB Joburg Art Fair. She is represented by Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg.
Portia Zvavahera was born in 1985 in Juru, Zimbabwe, and lives in Harare. She studied at the BAT Visual Arts Studio under the auspices of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe between 2003 and 2005, after which she obtained a first-class Diploma in Visual Arts from Harare Polytechnic in 2006. Zvavahera held a solo exhibition, Under My Skin, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, in 2010, and has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in that country. She was an artist-in-residence at Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, in 2009. In 2013 she was the recipient of the 10th Tollman Award for the Visual Arts.
About her work she says:
Using painting and printmaking as media I interpret that which I depict from my dreams, life experiences in comforting and uncomfortable moments. My work serves as a personal diary.
I mainly depict my dreams which I hardly forget. I have to express myself through painting and printmaking relieving myself off the burden which I carry when I do not put it across visually which serves as a healing process and to other people I want them to know that they are spiritual battles in life and that there is always someone wishing you bad luck whilst you try to make things happen in your life.
What I am saying is people should have a positive mindset to start seeing things in a positive way because we are conquerors in every situation. We cannot do without God because he gave us power to create and change situations in life.
