It’s called the First Floor Gallery and its original home was on the first floor of Abbey House in George Silundika Avenue, Harare. From there, it had several basement exhibitions. Now it has a new space… and it’s not on the first floor of anything.
But that matters little, as the aim of the gallery is to be an exhibition space and resource for young artists in town and to grow audiences for contemporary art among ordinary working people of Harare.
The gallery that was launched in a small, shabby room next to a tailors’ workshop by Valerie Kabov and Marcus Gora is coming of age and has provided an alternative space for many artists in its three years of existence.
Its new dedicated premises is on the 2nd Floor of Mercury House, 24 George Silundika Avenue, in the Harare CBD. The gallery launch will take place on Thursday, September 27 at 5:30pm.
Since its launch in 2009, the young gallery has become known for pushing the boundaries of emerging contemporary art in Zimbabwe with innovative exhibitions, performances in The Basement nightclub and at festivals (HIFA/Chimanimani). It has also contributed to artistic education through its master-classes in audio-visual art to portraiture, as well as international exhibitions and art fair participation in Paris, Bangkok, Johannesburg and Berlin.
Recently the gallery took part in the Joburg Fringe, part of the giant annual Arts Alive Festival.
According to Gora, the gallery’s PR and Marketing Director, The new dedicated space marks is a new stage in the gallery development, with more resources and programming to support young artists, introducing international guests as well as presenting challenging exhibitions. “It is also a chance to show local audiences how good Zimbabwean emerging art can be and to develop a local appreciation and collector base for our best visual artists,” he said.
Having also just returned from a highly successful trip to take part in the prestigious Berliner Liste art fair, Gora says, “We were very popular and well received at Berliner Liste. The level of excitement and support for the work of our artists was unprecedented. We are now confident of developing serious international careers for the artists we work with, but support at home is crucial. Home is the inspiration.”
He also spoke about the growing stature of visual art in the country. “Visual art has been in the shadow of music and performing arts in Zimbabwe for too long. Many people still are confused about contemporary art and shy about supporting it. Our new gallery has an open door policy to all who are interested and will be putting in a lot of effort into active audience development. Visual art is exciting, it is accessible and it is important to Zimbabwe’s creative future.”
The opening exhibition is a first major solo show for Harare artist Moffat Takadiwa. The exhibition is titled “Africa Not Reachable” an iconic statement on the amount of imported products that Zimbabweans are consuming and discarding.
It consists of found object sculptures which are an attempt to give indigenous life and spiritual meanings to foreign refuse – cables, phones, and machinery, even bottles. It is also a comment on our environment and the values we choose or choose not to give to things we have, buy and throw away. The resulting works are dynamic and powerful story telling through objects that never fail to engage the eye.
He ended off by thanking organisations that have supported the gallery. “We would like to acknowledge the generous support from the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe, Arts Collaboratory and Prince Claus Foundation in recognizing the important work that the gallery doing to help build a viable and professional contemporary art sector in Zimbabwe and developing careers for young Zimbabwean artists at home and internationally.”