Open Space #15 Portia Zvavahera

Portia Zvavahera’s paintings are based on her dreams. Steeped in Christian convictions and indigenous Zimbabwean beliefs, the artist considers her nocturnal visions to be prophecies, the emotional intensity of which she seeks to transcribe through painting. They raise questions of life and death, the material and the spiritual, love and solitude, the personal that touches the universal. Here, the artist conjures her phantasmagorical universe through multiple silhouettes appearing across the surface of the canvas. Their deformed, roughly sketched limbs are diluted in an expressionist touch that emphasizes their ghostly presence. With no element of setting or context, these apparitions seem to float freely.

The composition is based on a juxtaposition and superimposition of shapes, solids, and motifs, using a variety of techniques: from paint applied with a brush or stick, to stencils and etchings to create patterns using the traditional methods of Zimbabwean batik. On the canvas, rich in material and texture, these sections contrast with the areas left white, in reserve, evoking the "angels" that the artist saw in the dream at the source of this painting.