Gareth Nyandoro “….READ ALL ABOUT”

Van Doren Waxter (195 Chrystie St)

[Image: Gareth Nyandoro "Mhofu Motor Spares" (2018) kucheka-cheka (mixed media on paper mounted on canvas), 320 x 250 cm. Courtesy Van Doren Water, New York and Tiwani Contemporary, London.]

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Van Doren Waxter presents the gallery’s first solo exhibition with Zimbabwean artist Gareth Nyandoro. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition in North America and features new works expressly made for the show.

Gareth Nyandoro is noted for his large works on paper, which often spill out of their two-dimensional format and into installations that include paper scraps and objects found in the markets of Harare, where he lives and works. The artist’s chief source of inspiration is the daily landscape of the city and its residents, both within the local milieu and the larger cultural panorama of Zimbabwe. Works on view are emblematic of these themes as well as the artist’s signature technique, which he has named ‘Kucheka cheka’, after the infinitive and present tense declinations of the Shona verb cheka, which means ‘to cut’.

Nyandoro’s distinctive technique is informed by his training in printmaking and is derived from etching. He prepares the various elements of his compositions separately, before assembling them on loose canvas. Using sharp blades, he inscribes large, densely layered pieces of paper with numerous cuts and sponges ink onto the surface. Upon removing the top layer of paper with tape, only the ink that is trapped within deep incisions remains visible. This technique also produces coils and strips of paper along the way—indexes of the labor-intensive process—which Nyandoro often collages back onto the work or scatters on the floor alongside it.

The artist’s subjects have ranged from African cultural figures and star athletes to local vendors and busy market-stand sellers and customers, each of whom is depicted with equal veneration. In this way, Nyandoro quietly mines the contours of social exchange in various publics – through commerce, politics, sports and popular culture. His poetic visual lexicon and humanist viewpoint is manifest in the overt materiality of his work: the artist’s interest in individual roles within diverse contexts is illustrated in a spectrum of images, textures, patterns and colors. As one might in central Harare, a viewer of Nyandoro’s work here may also stumble upon a single shoe, a hanging shirt, spontaneous soccer game, or a cockfight.

Gareth Nyandoro (b. 1982, Bikita, Zimbabwe) lives in and works in Harare. He co-represented Zimbabwe at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and is the winner of the Emerging Voices Award in Art from the Financial Times / Oppenheimier Funds, London. After studying art at Harare Polytechnic College and the Chinhoyi University of Technology (Zimbabwe), Nyandoro was a resident at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2014 - 2015) and SAM Art Projects, Paris (2016). Nyandoro is currently included in ‘”Pur l’Amour du Jeu” at Magasins Generaux, Paris and “Drawing Africa on the Map” at Quinta do Quetzal,Vila de Frades, Portugal. His work has been displayed in solo shows including: “Stalls of Fame” (2017) at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; “Paper Cut” (2016), Tiwani Contemporary, London; “Gareth Nyandoro”, Galerie 23, Stichting Beeldende Kunst, Amsterdam, 2015; “Weaving Life”, Gallery Delta, Harare, 2013; “Mutariri”, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, 2012. He has also been included in group exhibitions such as: “A Moment of Grace”, Modern Art Oxford (2016); “RijksakademieOPEN 2015”, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2015); “Trek: Following Journeys”, Smac Gallery, Cape Town (2015); and “Zimbabwean Contemporary Art”, Galerie 23, Amsterdam (2013).