We are excited to announce the list of the shortlisted artists for artHARARE Africa First Art Prize 2021. This year we saw many high-quality applications for the prize that made for a very competitive review process. As of now, the jury committee will review the top 20 submitted materials with great care and shall identify the finalist from these shortlisted entries. The shortlisted artists are: Dan Halter, Daniel Chimurure, Evans Mutenga, Franklyn Dzingai, Greg Shaw, Isheanesu Dondo, Johnson Mugabe, Linnet Rubaya, Luckmore Tashinga Majiri, Pardon Mapondera, Prudence Chimutuwah, Ronald Mutemeri, Tafara Magumise, Tamary Kudita, Tatenda Chidora, Tawanda Takura, Tendayi Maradze Shonhiwa, and Johnson Mugabe.
The winning artist will be announced on 5 December 2021.
Again our jury committee includes: Fadzai Muchemwa, Independent Curator, Writer, Researcher and Curator of the Zimbabwe Pavillion at the Venice Biennale (Harare, Zimbabwe) Moffat Takadiwa, Visual artist and founder of Mbare Art Space (Harare, Zimbabwe) Marwan Zakhem, Director at Gallery 1957 (Accra, Ghana and London, UK) Serge Tiroche, Art Collector and Founder of Africa First (Tel Aviv, Israel) Richard Mudariki, Visual Artist and co-founder of artHARARE (Cape Town, South Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe)
The prize is: A 1-2 months residency in Israel in 2022 (Covid Restriction Permitting) that includes:
US$100 daily stipend
Accommodation (including for a guest if requested in advance)
Studio
Working art materials
Economy round trip flight (for the artist only)
Africa First will select artworks produced during residency to cover costs
On the ground support by artHARARE and Africa First team.
A solo exhibition at Gallery 1957
About artHARARE 2021 artHARARE is fast establishing itself as the pre-eminent platform to experience contemporary art from Zimbabwe. Now in its second edition, artHARARE 2021 invites artists, collectives and creatives at large to engage with Harare as a generative incubator and provocateur inspired by famous Zimbabwean author Dambudzo Marechera’s lines ‘I sing No More Roses But Walk Through Harare Mazes’. Roses and Mazes are a peculiar pairing and departure point to speculate relational aesthetics between art and this booming metropolis, Harare the city that hosts the art fair. artHARARE 2021 will take place online on www.artharare.com from 7 - 12 December 2021. For this edition, Harare is ground zero, the lab for forms of creative engagements with transitions and continuities in the city and their historicity. We are positioning Harare as a catalyst and incubator for relational aesthetics between art and the city. What if we think of Harare as a social field and catalyst to speculate on alternative futures and significant forms? What necro-politics are exposed from the use of abject materials by artists invoking ‘the shortening distance between the fragrance of novelty and the odor of the rubbish bin.’ But also resuscitation and extension of life forms, beauty, and joy. What Hararean Anthropocene and ecology politics speak through the Mukuvisi river? What Feminist readings does the Mupedzanhamo market render? What Harare cosmopolitanism can we read through art?
About Africa First
Africa First was founded by Serge Tiroche in 2017 as a platform to support and promote Contemporary Art from the continent. An active collector of African Contemporary art for over a decade, he decided to focus his private collecting and the residency program in Israel on emerging artists from Africa and its diaspora.
Africa First actively promotes the artists in its collection through a website, a widespread lending program, digital media presence, an artist residency program, newsletters, sponsorships, prizes and commissions, as well as various forms of collaboration and advisory work with a multitude of institutions in the art ecosystem. These activities are essential for the advancement of the artist’s profiles and ultimately long-term value creation.