February Exhibit at Thistle Community Gallery:
Black History Month Tribute
Curated by Adderly Grant-Lord featuring
Agnes Nyanhongo and SaToro Tafura
Agnes Nyanhongo is one of the most prominent Zimbabwean sculptors and one of Africa’s most collected female artists. She is the daughter of first generation sculptor, Claude Nyanhongo, who inspired her to become a professional artist.
Private and public collections of her work can be found in U.K., Germany, Australia, Italy, Denmark, South Africa, Singapore, and the U.S. She has been recognized with numerous awards from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe throughout her career.
Nyanhongo works extensively with the human form, often specifically addressing female issues, but always expressing a calm and watchful strength that seems so true to her own personality and character. She derives inspiration from the stone itself and much of her work depicts the natural world around her. She works by making close observations, but primarily carves from her own mental images.
Nyanhongo’s work is characterized by easy lines and areas of beautiful finish, contrasted with unworked surfaces. As a result, the images she produces, already universal by their nature, are presented in a combination of simplicity, quiet dignity, and beauty.
SaToro Tafura’s stone sculpture has received international acclaim and he has been recognized as one of the most promising stone sculptors of his generation.
Tafura harnesses his unique artistic sensibility to speak to and listen to stone, resulting in distinctly powerful stone sculptures that transcend time and geographical space. Tafura’s stone sculpture affirms the values and wisdom of his culture and reflects themes that resonate universally. Tafura is the first Zimbabwean to cast his one-of-a-kind stone sculpture in bronze on a large scale.
Tafura is based in Longmont, Colorado and enjoys returning to Zimbabwe, where he sculpts alongside his mother, renowned stone sculptor, Agnes Nyanhongo.
Tafura recently completed a 11.5 ton stone sculpture, a private commission, in South Denver. He’s also in the process of researching the complex written and oral histories of stone sculpture in Zimbabwe.