National Art Gallery Staff Exhibition
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe is proud to be hosting one of its major shows on the exhibition calendar, the Staff Exhibition. The month long exhibition which starts on the 21st of October 2008 is a reflection of how the Gallery is proud to be a major participant in the moulding of the visual arts, which are expressive of culture that defines a people.
The exhibition comprises of pulsating works by existing staff members from all three Galleries that is; Harare , Mutare and Bulawayo . On display will also be the works of staff who are outstanding artists such as Voti Thebe, Walter Ndundu, Jutha Dube, Silas Mukundu and Stan Matengwa. This year’s exhibition will be the 8th to be held by the National Gallery with the purpose of promoting staff members as artists and creating awareness in the public that the staff are drivers of art and have a wide knowledge of art theoretically and practically.
The Gallery is one of the significant pillars of Zimbabwe as it has been the repository of the visual arts heritage of the country. This has motivated the idea of involving staff members to be part of the art world and at the same time inspiring other upcoming artists to bring their creative processes into reality.
The show which has been made possible by the National Gallery and its staff involves a showcase of a variety of works from sculptures to paintings from the three Galleries. Some of the works on show reflect our everyday life, how people see things differently through shapes, colours, form and include titles like ‘Life Time’ and ‘Changing Colours’.
Mr. Walter Ndundu, the organizer of the show, spoke keenly about the works on exhibition which in his view provided an indication that the Gallery staff have played a pivotal role in the progression and growth of art and a display of their works is a mirror of the development of art from the time of the first groups of Gallery workers up to today. Like past years staff are still enthusiastic to participate in this exhibition because each show tells a different story of its time. The level of talent displayed through the different types of work by the staff members shows the effort and determination that they have.
For years art has played an integral part in creating harmony and encouraging reflections on social identity. Involvement in the arts is easier to understand when you keep in mind how it protects and maintains our cultural heritage. These staff members have come to understand that our art is a basic building block that gives Zimbabwe an identity and creates familiarization within an environment.
The first Director of the National Gallery, Frank McEwen, encouraged the early employees of the new Gallery to try their hand at producing art and he was impressed by the results of natural skill he got from the workers. He went on to encourage and nurture these attempts in the workers and hitherto the staff has never looked back.
The works reveal a new energy that is particularly evident in some of the stone pieces, abstract and figurative paintings, the use of mixed media and a vibrant use of colours
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