Exhibitions and Visits in the Conference Program
22 Rockwood (Est 2021)
Founded in 2021, Rockwood is a creative space and sculpture garden in Harare – home to selected Zimbabwean artists creating original works in stone, metal, and mixed media.
Set among gardens and natural granite formations, Rockwood offers a private setting for working studios, workshops, and exhibition spaces.
Animal Farm Artist Residency (Est 2013)
Established by Zimbabwean artist Admire Kamudzengerere, Animal Farm Artist Residency is a pioneering initiative advancing contemporary art dialogue and fostering positive social change from its base in Chitungwiza. Kamudzengerere describes wanting it to be “a catalyst for positive change, both within Zimbabwe and on a global scale.” Built on permaculture principles, the residency integrates agricultural initiatives to sustain its community and fund its programming, and includes a printmaking workshop alongside creative exchange, studio practice, and community projects. Recent partnerships, such as the Bridge Visual Arts Residency with the Tyburn Foundation, now fund fully-supported eight-week printmaking residencies for early-career artists, with 2025’s cohort drawing participants from South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Animal Farm sits within the same lineage as Dzimbanhete – Kamudzengerere having been mentored there before founding his own space – making it a good example, for jubilee purposes, of how NGZ-adjacent training has propagated into independent artist-led infrastructure.
Former Residents include Rachel Monosov, Olga Ganzha, Mbali Tshabalala, Raquel van Haver, Talking Dolls Detroit, Tawanda Reza, Clive Mukucha, Evans Mutenga, Primrose Chingandu, and George Masarira.
CECA Couture (Est 2023)
CECA Couture is a contemporary Zimbabwean luxury fashion house that translates the country’s rich heritage, landscapes, and cultural identity into high-end, wearable art. Founded and led by Creative Director Sibonginkosi Makaya, the Harare-based brand bridges the gap between historic storytelling and modern luxury. The label functions as a custodian of Zimbabwe’s history, translating local landscapes, wildlife, and ancient monuments into wearable art. Designs feature dramatic, theatrical craftsmanship, with structured and avant-garde shapes that emphasize visibility and confidence.
Chapungu Sculpture Park (Est 1970)
Founded by Roy Guthrie, the park has built up the most important permanent collection of this work in existence through Chapungu. From its humble beginnings as a small gallery in the capital city, Harare, to the 20-acre sculpture park in the outskirts of Harare, and now to its North American location, Chapungu has remained steadfast to its mission. It serves as a creative sanctuary, research archive, and an outdoor museum dedicated specifically to the early, master stone sculptors of Zimbabwe, as well as talent from the Tengenenge Community. The park serves a dual purpose as a nature sanctuary. It is curated to protect native indigenous tree species from local deforestation and uses the stone art – frequently themed around wildlife – to educate the public on local conservation and water systems.
Agnes Nyanhongo, Tapfuma Gutsa, Arthur Fata, Joe Mutasa, Taylor Nkomo, Eddie Masaya, Jonathan Mhondorohuma, Fabian Madamombe, Amos Supuni, Benjamin Katiyo, Leo Berekai, Faro Mavunga, December Mbonge, Gregory Mutasa, Tendayi Mutasa, and Euwitt Nyanhongo have worked in residence at Chapungu.
https://www.chapungusculpturepark.com
Chitungwiza Art Centre (Est 1997)
Chitungwiza Arts Centre, located in Zengeza 4 and potentially the largest sculpture hub in southern Africa, was jointly founded by the Ministry of Arts and Culture, the UNDP, and Chitungwiza Town Council in 1997. It began with fewer than 40 sculptors but has grown to more than 400 artists working under its umbrella, making it central to Zimbabwe’s stone-sculpture economy.
It is particularly noted for providing a platform for women, youths, and artists with disabilities, supporting talent development, employment creation, and wider trade opportunities, although its leadership has also flagged diminishing demand, with some sculptors going months between sales as tourist visitation has declined.
It remains a key touchpoint for heritage and craft-economy programming, most recently hosting a 2025 open call tied to the Oxford Zimbabwe Arts Partnership addressing colonial legacy through sculpture. Some of the founding mentors include Sylvesster Mubayi, Fanizani Akuda, and Lazarus Takawira. Onias Mupumha Ishmael Chitiyo, Taurai Mupisiri,Chemedu Jemali, and Chituwa Jemali operate from the site.
Dominic Studio (Est 1994)
Most prominently tied to the local region is the renowned sculpture workspace in Harare. The studio incubates local sculpting talent, exhibits prominent Shona stone carvings and showcases international award-winning works. After completing a transformative five-year artist residency at Chapungu Sculpture Park between 1990 and 1994, Benhura chose to establish his own independent workspace. Having grown up as an orphan, he wanted to support talented, under-resourced artists who lacked proper working facilities. Panashe Wadarewa, Samkele Mhlaba, Jay Mariga, Brita Masalethulini, Brighton Layson, Godfrey Marufu, and Garrison Machinjilli work at the studio.
Dzimbanhete Art interactions (Est 2008)
Founded in 2008, Dzimbanhete Arts and Culture Interactions Trust (DACIT) is an arts and culture resource center prioritizing heritage preservation, situated some 25km outside Harare along the Bulawayo road, on Stonehurst Farm. Founded by educator and printmaker Chikonzero “Chiko” Chazunguza, Dzimbanhete has produced an extraordinary run of Venice Biennale representatives – painters Portia Zvavahera, Gareth Nyandoro, and Virginia Chihota, artist and teacher Masimba Hwati, artist Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, and sculptor Terrence Musekiwa all passed through the center before representing Zimbabwe in Venice.
Its programming spans mbira and folk-music festivals, printmaking training, and the ambitious All Afrika Village project – a planned 55-village architectural park intended to represent indigenous building traditions from across the continent. As the training ground behind Animal Farm, Tarisa, and much of the current Venice-representing generation, Dzimbanhete functions as an informal upstream mentor institution to NGZ’s own artist pipeline.
First Floor Gallery (Est 2009)
Zimbabwe’s leading contemporary art space with a program that incorporates artist development and educational and socially engaged cultural initiatives alongside gallery practice, First Floor Gallery Harare has launched numerous international careers of Zimbabwean artists and beyond, and transforming art purchases into investments. It began as an experimental, artist-run initiative created to bypass standard institutional barriers. It specializes in discovered talent development, local artist residency programs, and international market curation to transition young African artists onto global exhibition platforms.
The Gallery features artists such as Wycliffe Mundopa, Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Troy Makaza, Amanda Shingirai Mushate, Helen Teede, Anne Zanele Mutema, Grace Nyahangare, Again Chokuwamba, Shamilla Aasha, Zacharaha Magasa, Takunda Regis Billiat, Mavis Tauzeni, and Victor Nyakauru.
https://www.firstfloorgalleryharare.com/
Kumba Kwedu (Est 2023)
A studio based in the light industrial area of Msasa established by Virginia Chihota, a prominent Zimbabwean contemporary artist born in 1983 in Chitungwiza, known for her deeply introspective works that blend drawing, printmaking, and screen-printing. Her art heavily navigates the complex emotional realities of the female form, addressing deeply personal yet universal themes like childbearing, marriage, kinship, cultural isolation, and spiritual faith. Felix Shumba currently operates from Kumba Kwedu.
Michele Mathison will be the artist in residence at Kumba Kwedu, Harare, during the period of the CIMAM Conference in Harare.
→ About Michele Mathison:
Michele Mathison’s sculptural practice explores how objects and materials acquire meaning through their histories, uses, and social contexts. His early work focused on found objects whose significance had been transformed by circumstance. The jerry can, for example, became a charged object during Zimbabwe’s fuel shortages, shifting from an everyday container to something associated with informal trade and survival.
His practice has since expanded into an investigation of material itself, and how its use and appropriation can transform its value and meaning. Form is equally important. Through changes in scale and geometry, familiar materials can move beyond their original function and evoke new associations and memories.
Rather than beginning with a fixed narrative, Mathison allows meaning to emerge through the relationship between material and form. Working with stone, steel, ceramic, wood and bronze, his practice increasingly extends into architecture, landscape and public space, where physical encounter becomes part of the work’s meaning.
https://www.michelemathison.com/
Mbare Art Space (Est 2019)
Uses art to re-imagine physical spaces and create opportunity and build community. Mbare Art Space extends beyond the physical place to a network of artists and serves as a platform for connecting local and global art communities. The Urban Culture & Heritage Initiative, a non-profit Zimbabwean trust, was formed to manage the creation of Mbare Art Space, a major urban renewal project in the oldest, most densely populated community of Harare, Zimbabwe. Their primary objective is to establish a beautiful, functional, and sustainable arts community and studio space. We are responsible for overseeing the transformation of the existing property, operating the arts center and facilitating community outreach. We are partnering with leading architecture programs in Germany and the US, local and international artists, private citizens, and corporate sponsors to bring this vision to life and sustain it long term. Takunda Regis Billiat, Kimberly Tatenda Gakanje, William Joseph Kachinjika, Nkosiyabo Frank Nyoni, Tafadzwa Benson Chataika, Lomedy Mhako, Marcus Zvinavashe, and CaliGraph Collective operate from this site.
National Gallery of Zimbabwe (Est 1957)
The country's premier institution for the presentation, preservation, and conservation of Zimbabwe's contemporary art and visual heritage. Officially opened on July 16, 1957, by the then Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the institution has played a central role in launching Zimbabwean contemporary art and Shona stone sculpture onto the global stage.
The gallery houses a permanent repository of close to 6,000 artworks. This diverse collection spans master Shona stone sculptures, contemporary avant-garde paintings, multi-disciplinary installations, and traditional cultural artifacts like textiles and basketry. Headquartered in Harare, the institution operates a national network that includes regional galleries in Bulawayo (Douslin House), Victoria Falls, and an art community center in Tengenenge.
The institution has had seven directors; Fran McEwen, Brian Bradshaw, Christopher Till, Cyril Rogers, George Kahari, Doreen Sibanda, and Raphael Chikukwa.
Exhibitions on view at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe during the CIMAM 2026 Annual Conference:
→ A View to a Horizon: From Henry Munyaradzi to Andrea Piazza (Co-Curated by Raphael Chikukwa and Zvikomborero F. Mandangu)
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe in partnership with the Italian Embassy in Zimbabwe presents A View to a Horizon: From Henry Munyaradzi to Andrea Piazza. An Exhibition derived from the Permanent Collection featuring the works of Old Italian Masters and Modernist African Masters. The Italian Embassy in Zimbabwe has contributed immensely towards the restoration of these Italian Masters and they have not been seen by both local and international audiences for years. A View to a Horizon is the scholar’s quiet instruction to look again at what has already been cited. This exhibition takes a physical limit as a proposition: that two artistic worlds, long cataloged apart, have been standing before the same horizon all along. This partnership between the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and the Italian Embassy Zimbabwe will be a continuation of cultural relations that cement the shared heritage. The repatriation of the old Italian Master from the UK in 2018 saw the gallery and the Italian Embassy celebrating the return of three works. These include, “Patriarch” and “The Astronomer” by Paolo Veronese and the King of Poland being welcomed by the Doge of Venice by Andrea Piazza. The continued conversation with the Italian Ambassador to Zimbabwe HE Ambassador Giuseppe Giacalone will see this icon exhibition being launched during the 58th CIMAM Annual Conference on the 21st of November at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
→ Connecting Elements (Co-Curated by Raphael Chikukwa and Zvikomborero F. Mandangu)
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in Zimbabwe and Delta Beverages presents Connecting Elements exhibition exploring relationships between people, materials, histories, environments and systems of knowledge. Connecting Elements exhibition considers connection not as something fixed, but as a continuous process of reassembling, remembering and re imagining. At a time when social, ecological and cultural relationships are increasingly fractured, the works in this exhibition ask how seemingly separate elements might be brought back into dialogue. Materials carry histories; landscapes hold memory; bodies embody experience; and objects can become vessels through which personal and collective narratives are transmitted. Some of the artists include Simon Nyanda, a former student of Serima Mission, founded by a Swiss Missionary Father Hans Groeber. Some of the artists include Mthabisi Pili, Berry Bickle, Hellen Tidd, Kreshia Mukwazhi, and Clive Mukucha, etc.
The artists approach these connections through different processes, materials and perspectives from the diaspora to the African soil. Their works move between the intimate and the collective, the natural and the constructed, the remembered and the imagined. In doing so, Connecting Elements creates a space for encounters/dialogues—between disciplines, generations, cultures, ways of being and ways of seeing. Their works also reflect on the act of re-connection and re-thinking itself. To reconnect is not necessarily to return to what existed before but to be informed by the past as we look into the future.
The show will be launched on the 21st of November during the 58th CIMAM Annual Conference.
http://www.nationalgallery.co.zw
National Museum of Human Sciences (Est 1903)
The Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences is located in the Civic Centre on Burnett Way (Rotten Row) in Harare. It features archaeological treasures like the 700-year-old Ngoma Lungundu drum, a life-sized traditional Shona village replica, and extensive human evolution galleries.
NGSVAD (Est 1980)
NGSVAD (National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design)
The National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design (NGSVAD) is NGZ’s own training ground, based at the Beatrice Cottages campus in Mbare and historically known as BAT (Bulawayo Art Trust) and Visual Art Studios before its formal registration in 2012 under Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education approval, offering two certificate levels in visual arts and design awarded jointly with Harare Polytechnic. Its roots trace back to the earlier Workshop School tradition that predates independence, and it has functioned as the country’s closest thing to a dedicated tertiary fine-art institution. NGSVAD’s alumni list reads as a roll call of Zimbabwe’s most internationally visible contemporary artists: Virginia Chihota and Portia Zvavahera trained at the BAT Visual Art Studios before completing a diploma at Harare Polytechnic, while Troy Makaza and other Zeitz MOCAA-featured artists studied painting and sculpture there. For the Platinum Jubilee narrative, NGSVAD is best framed as NGZ’s pipeline institution – the place where the Gallery’s mandate to nurture, and not just exhibit, is made concrete.
Notable alumni include Portia Zvavahera, Virginia Chihota, Wallen Mapondera, Admire Kamudzengerere, Chikonzero (Chiko) Chazunguza, the late Munyaradzi Mazarire, Mercy Moyo, Kresia Mkwazhi, Evans Tinashe Mutenga, the late Locadia Ndandarika, the late Joseph Ndandarika, Terence Musekiwa, Troy Makaza, Shalom Kufakwatenzi, and Nothando Chiwanga.
https://nationalgallery.co.zw/national-gallery-school-of-arts-and-design/
Nhaka Gallery (Est 2021)
Established in 1975 by Helen Lieros and Derek Huggins as Gallery Delta, with the founding vision to promote and showcase Zimbabwean art across painting, graphics, mixed media, sculpture, and ceramics, the space transitioned to Delta Gallery Nhaka in 2021 following the passing of both founders, and is now directed by art-business figures, investors, artists, and curators. It operates under the Women’s Gallery Arts and Research Trust, with the stated aim of building a creative, safe, dynamic space for nurturing Zimbabwe’s next generation of artists.
Recent programming has leaned into gender-forward curation, including a 2023 exhibition, Women, Power & Mobility, produced with Mobility for Africa and supported by the Swiss and Australian embassies and UN Women, and it continues to run a formal Helen Lieros legacy art program honoring its founder’s six-decade career.
Nhaka is one of the clearest through-lines from NGZ’s own founding generation into present-day Harare gallery practice. The gallery works with Collins Nyaningwe, Keith Zenda, Lilian Magodi, Webster Mubaireni, and Brave Gavaza.
Nherera HUB (Est 2022)
A female-run cultural space in Zimbabwe that offers all creative people a safe place to come together to explore aesthetic processes of thinking accessed with and through the body. Finding intellectual space within our individual and collective movements, the HUB provides a platform for generative thought to develop as both creative practice and communal ritual.
Nherera HUB seeks to provide access to residency space, library archives, and a state-of-the-art sound studio for creators and thinkers coming from near and far to advance projects that take their form from within the global south. The compound also features productive gardens and a wood-fired kitchen, offering the opportunity to participate in a return to culinary arts that is informed by local and traditional practices. Some of the HUB’s creative engagements have come through McIntosh Pedzisai, Vusa Moyo, Fatima and Beauty Katiji, Company Chabarwa, and vaMajeza.
During the visit to Nherera HUB, CIMAM delegates will have the opportunity to experience a special performance by Zimbabwean-born artist, choreographer, and performer Nora Chipaumire, whose multidisciplinary practice explores questions of identity, history, and cultural representation through movement and performance.
Nora Chipaumire’s performance has been made possible through the generous support of Mercedes Vilardell, CIMAM’s 2026 Conference Visionary, Benefactor, and Travel Grant Funder.
→ About Nora Chipaumire:
Nora Chipaumire (also spelled “Norah”) is a Zimbabwean-born choreographer, dancer, and performer based between New York and Harare. Born in Mutare in the mid-1960s, she trained in Zimbabwe and the United States and works across dance, theatre, music, and visual art.
Her artistic practice explores how the African body is perceived, stereotyped, and politicized, drawing on Zimbabwean history, Pan-African icons, and the legacies of colonialism and liberation. Her work frequently addresses themes of Black femininity, mythology, and spiritual inheritance.
Among her best-known works are Portrait of Myself as My Father, lions will roar, swans will fly, ghosts will pray, #PUNK 100% POP N**A*, and Nehanda, which draws inspiration from the revered spirit medium associated with the First Chimurenga.
Her work has been presented at major international venues and festivals, and she has received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, including a Bessie Award.
Her choreography is characterized by its raw physicality, political intensity, and commitment to reclaiming African and diasporic identities on her own terms.
https://companychipaumire.com/
Tarisa Visual Art Studios (Est 2013)
Tarisa Visual Art Studio was founded by Gareth Nyandoro, born in 1982 in Bikita, Zimbabwe, who trained at Harare Polytechnic (National Diploma in Fine Art, 2003) and Chinhoyi University of Technology (Bachelor of Technology in Creative Art and Design, 2008). The studio operates out of Damofalls, Ruwa, where Nyandoro develops his signature “kucheka cheka” technique – named after the Shona verb “cheka,” meaning to cut, and involving cutting directly into paper before inking and lifting the top layer to leave ink in the incisions.
Nyandoro represented Zimbabwe at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 and has since shown at the Palais de Tokyo, Van Doren Waxter, and Tiwani Contemporary. As one of the four collectives (alongside Animal Farm, Village Unhu, and Post Studio) to feature in NGZ’s landmark A Gathering exhibition, Tarisa exemplifies the same DACIT-to-independent-studio lineage as Animal Farm, reinforcing how much of Harare’s most visible contemporary practice threads back through Chazunguza’s mentorship. Wilfred Timire, Clarence Murenza, and Tafadzwa Dzuda are some of the artists working at the studio.
Village Unhu (Est 2009)
An artist-led creative space and community hub founded in 2009 in Harare, Zimbabwe, it operates on the philosophy of unhu (Ubuntu), functioning as an extended family to support local contemporary art. Unhun offers affordable working studio spaces in which local and upcoming visual artists can create and experiment, as well as artist-in-residence exchanges fostering cross-cultural dialogue with local and international artists.
Its educational programs cover drawing, painting, multimedia, sculpture, and critical thinking, all while showcasing under-represented contemporary Zimbabwean artists such as Epheas Maposa, Gideon Gomo, Evans Tinashe Mutenga, Tawanda Takura, Nyasha Marovatsanga, Kenny Maruta, and Lawrence Duri.
Wallen Mapondera Studio (Est 2025)
WMS emerged from a recognized gap: despite large numbers of artists graduating from the National Gallery Visual Art Studio and Harare Polytechnic, many lacked grounding in self-promotion and professional practice. It has since become an establishment set up for the advancement of contemporary visual art practice and education in Zimbabwe, playing a role in shaping the future of visual art through sharing expertise, education, and promotion of artists, with co-founder Masimba Hwati recognized for extending its outreach into art history and pedagogy work with the Zimbabwe Cultural Centre in Detroit.
The collective has hosted formal residencies (Takudzwa Guzha’s migration-themed body of work among them) and remains a fixture of Harare’s art-fair circuit, including recent participation in the Cheuka Harare Art Fair. Farnklyn Dzingai, Isheanesu Dondo, Erhuardt Muchemwa, Kudakwashe Chakwanda, Nothando Chiwanga, and Gillian Rosselli, have been part of the collective.
ZUVVA (Est 1995)
Zuvva is a contemporary, ready-to-wear, eco-friendly, slow-fashion and lifestyle brand that is inspired by Africa, designed and manufactured in Zimbabwe. The fashion studio and lifestyle brand have spent decades weaving local heritage, sustainable slow fashion, and African-inspired aesthetics into contemporary ready-to-wear garments. Hosi wellness range: Beyond apparel, the studio promotes a holistic African lifestyle, incorporating the Hosi wellness and beauty range into their physical retail experience.
Zvavahera Gomo Studio
Zvavahera studied at the BAT Visual Art Studios at NGZ from 2003–04 before completing a diploma in visual arts at Harare Polytechnic in 2006, going on to represent Zimbabwe at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and win South Africa’s Tollman Award and FNB Art Prize. She is now one of the country’s most internationally collected painters, known for dream-derived, block-printed compositions.
Having studied at the same NGSVAD institution in the 1990s, Gomo works as a sculptor and assemblage artist whose practice centers on springstone, which he manipulates and brings into conversation with metal, copper sheets, wood, and found objects, producing work infused with ritual, fantasy, and dreamlike qualities that reveal the hidden and ignored voices of society.
Gomo was selected, alongside four other artists, to represent Zimbabwe at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, a fitting pairing with Zvavahera as two generations of the same NGSVAD-to-Venice trajectory.