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Godwin Muzari Arts Editor
Visual art hubs in Harare gleamed as pieces of various colours, shapes and sizes hung on gallery walls, exposing green talent from scholarly and passionate artists.

Since the beginning of the month, final year fine art students from Chinhoyi University of Technology exhibited their visual works of various forms in many parts of the country in accordance with their course outline requisites.

About 50 percent of the exhibitions took place in Harare galleries where pieces telling different stories about topical social issues were showcased.

About 25 students from a class of almost 50 undergraduates at the university put their works on show at art spaces like National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Village Unhu, Gallery Delta, Moto Republik, First Floor Gallery, Sam Levy’s Village and LongCheng Plaza among others.

The young artists presented their creativity through illustrations, paintings, drawings, graphic designs, photographs and fashion designs, among other visual art forms.

Creative prowess came to fore as the artists competed to make lasting impressions with their works that also attracted non-academic artistic appreciation.

They did it to fulfill the last module of their degrees and, in the process, brought interesting colours to the capital city.

While exhibitions are traditionally held periodically at various scattered galleries in the city, the showcases from CUT students brought a breeze of creativity that swept through the capital in a refreshing way.

For almost a week, visual art lovers were spoilt for choice as galleries availed the showcases in unison and brought little-known and unknown artists to limelight.

Such exhibitions come with neutral viewership that is void of presumed judgment of the probable best artists. The fact that all exhibitions were solo showcases gave viewers platforms to separately apportion levels of expertise to individual artists, culminating in fair comparative analysis of the works from different students.

However, this review does not intend to pursue such comparative examination, but seeks to reflect on the colours of creativity from Chinhoyi that glossed Harare during the parallel exhibitions.

At the National Gallery of Zimbabwe was an exhibition titled “The Journeyman” that displayed works by Tafadzwa Mupfunya.

The showcase tackled topical social themes in an interesting way and paraded the young man’s penchant for raising awareness on pertinent issues like children’s rights and health matters.

Ironically Mupfunya became an art student by default.

“I wanted to study business management, but my application was late and I ended up taking creative art and design.

“I had interest in drawing as I was growing up, but I never considered taking it seriously.

“When I joined the arts department by default, I retraced my passion for drawing and everything fell into place as I built my course from that foundation,” said Mupfunya.

“I can say the course sharpened a skill that was already in me and I can now confidently say I am an artist.

“I have learnt a lot and I was impressed when many people that came to my exhibition encouraged me to pursue visual art professionally.

“It means they saw something unique in my work and very few believed I got into this field by mistake. I am proud of my work.”

However, Mupfunya said he will do art as a part-time occupation since he still wants to focus on business studies. He said the current situation does not guarantee a stable source of income from art and he has to complement his sharpened passion with something else more lucrative.

On his show were graphic illustrations under the theme “Signs and Symptoms of Malaria” while his drawing titled “Rivers of Tears” that condemns child abuse was popular with viewers.

Mupfunya had 30 pieces on exhibition and the location of his showcase at NGZ gave him an advantage of preferential viewership.

Rodney Badza had an exhibition at First Floor Gallery titled “Creator’s Palette”.

The show presented works that Badza did over his four-year course at CUT and he regarded it as the mirror of his artistic transformation.

On show were paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and graphic illustrations among other pieces.

His most popular artwork was a painting titled “I Will Not Drink Again” that discourages alcoholism. Badza had series in prints under the banner “Listen to My Soul” while his photographs and graphic illustrations were done under series titled “Runaway Love” and “Burning Love” respectively.

Badza’s passion for art developed when he was a young boy who enjoyed drawing and painting.

“My course at CUT was an eye-opener. I had interest in drawing and painting since I was young.

“When I went to college, I sharpened those skills and I can now do many other forms of art.

“I now have more interest in photography and curatorship,” he said.

Badza is already into full-time art and has assumed the role of gallery manager at First Floor Gallery. He will continue producing pieces and is looking forward to another exhibition soon. He had 44 pieces at his solo exhibition.

At Moto Republic gallery in Belgravia was an exhibition of pieces done by Natasha Mubare. The talented lady is determined to continue pursuing art with a bias towards fashion design. She wants to set up her fashion house and express her creativity through needle and scissors.

Besides fashion designs, Mubare exhibited illustrations, photographs, paintings, photographs and graphic designs.

She had 40 pieces on display and her most popular series of illustrations came under the theme “King Lo”. Her painting titled “Ziso” attracted interest from viewers while her photographs exploring children’s rights under the title “Let the Children Play” also got a big share of appreciation.

“There is a lot of visual art talent that is shaped at CUT and people in the country should appreciate the genre more. If society appreciates our art, we will get more inspiration to show our creativity and show the world that Zimbabwe has talent,” she said.

“The support I got from my family after taking up art as a career pushed me to do better and I believe if the country supports aspiring visual artists we will be able to paint our history in a colourful way. I started painting and drawing when I was young and the knowledge I amassed at CUT grew into versatility.”

Munyaradzi Marozva was at Village Unhu gallery in Chisipite with his “Creative Narrative” exhibition that showcased 42 pieces.

The exhibition had photographs, paintings, illustrations, sculptures and drawings among other pieces.

Marozva is proud that art has taught him to approach various situations in life with an open mind. It has also taught him to work around errors to bring out something interesting.

“I want to continue learning and practicing art.

“I want to proceed to Masters Degree level and get more tricks and knowledge about visual art.

“Art is my life and I know artists can do so much for the society if they get exposure.

“Art is big business in many countries and I want to contribute to the revolution of art in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Hanging on the walls of Marozva’s exhibition was an attractive comic series titled “Loma Shumba”.

He also had a photograph showcasing the beauty of nature titled “Golden Hour” while “Self Conscious” and “My Way or the Highway (Part 1)” series were also outstanding at the showcase.

Other students that had outstanding exhibitions in Harare were Paul Makaya, Nyasha Chigama and Gracious Chikwape.

This year’s exhibitions from CUT fine art students are just a part of artistic expressions that the university has rolled out annually since the introduction of the course.

The annual exhibitions strive to take art to different communities to encourage appreciation of art and give students exposure and network platforms as they graduate into practicing and part-time artists.

Besides Harare, other students showcased their works in places like Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru, Chiredzi, Marondera and Chinhoyi among others.

Appreciation of visual art is still low among local art followers and such exhibitions are likely to build interest in the minority art, which is an embodiment of utmost creativity and passion.