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Artists work on graffiti at Makoni Shopping Centre

Tawanda Matanhire Arts Correspondent
“Though street art hasn’t developed that much in Zimbabwe, there is a brighter future for it because of the passion that I saw in the young stars.”

Newly-formed Post Studio Arts Collective has embarked on a phased project to promote local visual art on the streets.

The first phase of the initiative commenced last Tuesday at Machipisa Shopping Centre in Highfield where they held a graffiti street painting on canvas session in which students from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and arts enthusiast took part.

The street art also went to other ghetto hubs including Makoni Shopping Centre in Chitungwiza and Malvern Shops (popularly known as KwaZindoga) in Waterfalls.

Post Studios invited top South African street graffiti painters Martin Lund and Grant Jurius from Cape Town to help shape the initiative.

The programme ended last Saturday at Zindoga after several local visual artists exhibited their talent with can sprays during the course of the week.

Communications director for Post Studios, Merilyn Mushakwe, said they are in a process of documenting and creating a map of visual arts in Zimbabwe so that people get easy access to what is happening in the world of art.

“We have embarked on these projects so as to create a map of visual arts in our country. Galleries, individuals, museums and other stakeholders should know what is happening within the arts world,” Mushakwe said.

“We noticed that as compared to other countries Zimbabweans know little about street art and we have decided to introduce this type of art in our communities,” Mushakwe said.

Graffiti spray art is practiced in so many countries and attracts a lot of attention from art lovers in most towns and cities.

People visit some of the places just to admire the beauty of street art.

“Other cities are so beautiful because of graffiti art and during this first phase we thought it was good to have this in our country as it will also attract attention of different people.”

Martin Lund who is a patron of a project called Street is the Gallery in Cape Town said he had an amazing experience working with upcoming graffiti artists in the country who have potential to take up street art to another level.

“Though street art hasn’t developed that much in Zimbabwe, there is a brighter future for it because of the passion that I saw in the young stars,” Lund said.

“Street art gets people together as they will be attracted to the ideas and paintings, which in the end bring unity.”