‘Lost and Found’ goes to Jo’burg Art Fair Raphael Chikukwa

The home of comprehensive art this year turns 61 years and continues to shine in Zimbabwe and beyond borders. This year the National Gallery of Zimbabwe will exhibit Lost and Found: Uncertainty, Expectation, Excitement and Hope at the FNB Joburg Art Fair. The show which is scheduled to run from September 6 to 9 will attract several galleries from across the continent and around the globe.

An art fair is a trade show where people in the art sector, from dealers and art advisors to collectors and curators meet and make deals. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe having successfully hosted the four Zimbabwe Pavilions at the Venice Biennale, the largest art exposition in the world, has now embarked on engaging the Continental consumer base with another initiative which will take Zimbabwean art beyond the Nation’s borders through the sterling Lost and Found exhibition.

The FNB Joburg Art Fair is Africa’s leading art fair focused on contemporary art from the continent and diaspora. Now in its eleventh year, it continues to strengthen this position by presenting the finest of contemporary African art alongside memorable exhibitions and ground breaking initiatives.

The annual, premier visual art event on the African continent, the 2018 FNB JoburgArtFair will see local and international collectors, curators; artists and art patrons converge on Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre.

This year, the Fair will feature exhibitions within four categories including Contemporary Galleries, Solo Presentations, Limited Editions and Art Platforms. The selection is made by a committee of gallerists who participate in the fair, with a committee chair that does not vote.

Special features of the Fair include a series of curated Special Projects, a VIP Programme hosting top international curators and directors from institutions such as Tate Modern, the Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou and Performa as well as a Talks Programme that invites art-world figures, philosophers, and critical theorists to deliver key-note lectures and participate in panel discussions. The 2018 Fair will also see the eighth edition of the FNB Art Prize a major opportunity for artists to realise new work at the Fair.

The National Gallery of Zimbabwe exhibiting at the Joburg Art Fair is of high importance simply because Art fairs avail marketing opportunities to international clients. Furthermore, art fairs are a great place for upcoming and young artists to gain recognition by the international art world. Not only does this expose their brand to the art world, but art fairs provide an excellent networking opportunity.

Lost and Found explores the resilience of Zimbabwe through several media expressing their interpretation of the events which commenced on the 18th of November last year. Zimbabwe is widely known around the world for its belligerent and raging history largely governed by strained race relations and contested histories and ownership. Over the last two decades Zimbabweans were characterised by hopeless and low expectations. However the November uprising marked the turning point and became a perfect time to reassert what being a Zimbabwean citizen means.

Through this exhibition the nation’s contentious history is herein interrogated through the visual captions of the aforementioned march. Scenes of tension are coupled with relative calm and interactions between the military and the general populace. Political figures and the everyday Zimbabwean people from across social, economic and religious divides walking together shoulder to shoulder.

Lost and Found will include artworks by Jekesai Njikizana, Davina Jogi and Charmaine Chitate. Some of the gripping artworks on display include Ralph Chikambi’s Gogo In the Mix which is an image of an elderly woman holding a Zimbabwe flag at the National Sports Stadium in Harare during the inauguration of President E.D. Mnangagwa, Auntony Zinyange’s Asante Sana which is of a man who looks at a television set broadcasting a state address by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in Mbare, expecting him to resign the list is endless.

Curated by National Gallery of Zimbabwe Curator Raphael Chikukwa Lost and Found exhibition is expected to travel to the Addis Foto Fest in December this year.

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