Gareth Nyandoro

Gareth Nyandoro was born in Bikita Masvingo in 1982. Gareth trained at Masvingo Polytechnic, Harare Polytechnic and Chinhoyi University of Technology. Street life and the human interaction that accompanies it are recurring themes in Gareth Nyandoro’s work. Around the world, markets are public places where vendors have a chat and present their wares in the most attractive way possible. In Harare, Zimbabwe this is done on a piece of cloth on the sidewalk, so vendors can quickly grab their things as soon as the police arrive to arrest them for trading illegally. Gareth has exhibited widely both in Zimbabwe, Africa and abroad. He has had more than 5 residencies and is currently on a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in the Netherlands.

Gareth Nyandoro combines images of vendors with found materials which he processes by employing idiosyncratic variations on traditional craft techniques. He weaves with paper. Nyandoro produces prints not by using an engraved copper plate, but by cutting directly into the paper, sponging ink onto it and finally removing the top layer of paper with tape so the ink is only left behind in the cuts. A technique he calls “KUCHEKACHEKA”. He attempts to simulate the market environment by combining two-dimensional collages with three-dimensional objects. The fragile, ephemeral quality of his work references the temporary nature of the marketplace. Gareth’s installations bring the two – dimensional and three – dimensional components together through drawing, props, and objects to create works reflecting his research in relation to space, narrative, or storytelling, and materials as they are altered and transferred. In Venice, he will work with these diverse aspects of his practice to create two distinct rooms, with common themes unifying and resonating in the entire space with the other artists, relating to the present condition of Zimbabwean identity. His Mushika Shika Yevanhu installations examine in minute detail whether the new age transitional marketplace and associated identities of the touts, vendors and audience have a lasting impact on our humanity, history and culture; whether they define who we are as a people.