At the Gallery
This December marks the return of Zimbabwe’s biggest and most relevant exhibition of contemporary art.
The “Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition” will this year reboot to provide a showcase that represents a gauge for the progress visual art is taking in the country.

The reason for this exhibition’s relevance lies within the fact that at its inception in the 1980s, it was enshrined in the five-year development plan guided by the Arts and Culture Policy.

Through these frameworks the heritage exhibition developed, empowered and promoted local artists and saw them grow from strength to strength.

The “Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibition” awarded accolades to the best artworks in the various disciplines such as painting, graphics, ceramics, sculpture, photography and mixed media.

Other categories of note at that point in time were a special designation for highly commendable Women Artists and Young Artists of Promise.

The pièce de résistance was the President’s Award of Honour which was awarded to the most consistent artist who dedicatedly pursued their art in an excellent mode whilst developing contemporary Visual Art in Zimbabwe in the same length.

The late Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Dominic Benhura Helen Lieros and Tapfuma Gutsa are among the recipients of this prestigious award.

The Heritage Exhibition was sponsored by Baringa in its early manifestation and thereafter was endowed by Mobil Oil Zimbabwe.

Sponsorship from these corporations gave encouragement to the visual art sub-sector as with their inestimable endowments, the subsector was seen to develop not only in relation to training but also in regards to quality and marketability of work.

Since the exhibitions last function in 2002 the visual art sub-sector found the dark cloud of economic turmoil hanging over the consumption and appreciation of its produce.

Since then a pilot concept known as “Live ‘n’ Direct” in 2010 was held to identify the direction art was going and now the National Gallery of Zimbabwe will be rebooting the concept of the “Heritage Exhibition” this year.

An exhibition of such a format, that is an open entry exhibition, is important as it gives way for identifying and evaluating the rate at which the nation has trained creative skill and pinpoints the level of creativity of the informal sector in visual art.

With matters such as poverty eradication on the country’s economic agenda, “The Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition” may become a litmus test for institutions to find formalisation strategies and help establish a properly framed creative industry before 2018.

“The arts and culture sub-sector has always been an effective way of promoting a country’s positive image and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe is committed to representing the nation in a positive light on local and international platforms” said the chief curator of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Raphael Chikukwa.

“In this respect the ‘Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition’ provides us with an opportunity to promote Zimbabwean artists for both our local audience and international visitors.

The “Zimbabwe Annual Exhibition” has been a tradition for many years and in previous times was sponsored by Mobile Zimbabwe, Baringa, the National Merchant Bank, Anglo-American Corporation and many others,” he said.

“Since its inception, the Zimbabwe Annual exhibition has always published a catalogue and we would like to keep the tradition for it’s a very important as documentation and marketing tool for the Zimbabwean art, artists and our partners too.”

The format of the exhibition does not include a curator however as the prizes are decided by a jury committee consisting of art professionals, artists of great acclaim and corporate partners.

The prizes to be awarded will be founded on the idea of generosity from a network of outstanding patrons and corporate partners.

The return of the annual exhibition offers a new opportunity to celebrate contemporary art development in this country.

In addition the exhibition is a major contribution to the open participation of Zimbabwean artists in the dynamic cultural development of societies in global transition.

The due date for submission for Artworks is on October 31 2014 and forms may be appropriated from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe branches in Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.

 

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