Featuring Zimbabwe’s Most Prominent Sculptors

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“My work carries a message of how I feel, and what I would like to say, not only to women, but to people all over the world.”

Born in 1960 in Nyanga, Agnes Nyanhongo is now one of the most prominent and successful of Zimbabwe's sculptors and one of the most acknowledged female artists in Africa. Agnes is the daughter of the well known sculptor, Claud Nyanhongo, and as a child spent a great deal of time helping him with the polishing of his work. The sensitivity with which Agnes expresses her ideas and the respect for the material that is so apparent in her work could arguably have resulted from these early formative experiences.

Agnes Nyanhongo began sculpting full time at an early age and in 1983 embarked on a three-year course at the B.A.T. Workshops in Harare, where she was considered to be one of the most promising students. Her quiet determination and belief in her work have carried it along a purposeful and individual path and have now earned her much critical acclaim and many awards. Agnes works quite extensively with the human form, sometimes specifically with female issues, but always expressing a calm and watchful strength that seems so true to her own personality and character.

Agnes Nyanhongo derives some inspiration from the stone itself, but much of her work depicts the natural world around her; making close observations, but ultimately working from her own mental images of the subject. However, it is with traditional Shona myths that she has become increasingly involved recently. Not only does she feel that these have great relevance now, but she believes, as a sculptor, she has a responsibility in keeping them alive.  Agnes Nyanhongo’s work is always attractive, with easy lines and areas of beautiful finish alongside other, unworked surfaces. As a result the images she produces, already universal by there nature, are presented in a combination of simplicity, quiet dignity, beauty and finesse.

The sculpture of Agnes Nyanhongo

Agnes Nyanhongo

1985  Africa Central - London
1985  Zimbabwe Heritage Annual
1996  Galerie Im Schlobgarten, Germany
1987  Zimbabwe Heritage Annual 
1990  Yorkshire Sculpture Park
1991  Mabwe Gallery,  Harare
1991  Zimbabwe Heritage Annual 
1992  Universal Exposition, Seville
1992  Benson Park Sculpture Garden
1992  Chapungu Annual, Harare 
1993  South Korelia Art Museum
1994  Zimbabwe Heritage Annual
1994  Benson Park Sculpture Garden
1994  Palmengarten, Frankfurt
1995  Dortmund Botanical Garden 
1995  Galleri Knud Grothe, Denmark
1995  Chapungu Annual, Harare
1996  Chapungu Sculpture Park
1997  Fort Canning Park, Singapore
1998  Old State House, Hartford, CT
1999  Palmengarten, Frankfurt
2000  Royal Botanic Gardens, England
2001  Missouri Botanical Gardens, MO
2001  World Art Foundation, Holland
2001  Phillips Gallery, Carmel, CA
2001  Phillips Gallery, Kirkland, WA
2002 Zuva Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2003 Chicago Botanical Garden, IL
2003 Zuva Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
2004 Denver Botanical Garden, CO
2005 Franklin Park Conservatory, OH
2005 Bonner David Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ
2006 Chapungu, Loveland, CO
2006 Bonner David Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ
2007 Denver Botanical Garden, CO
2007  Missouri Botanical Gardens, MO
2007 Phillips Gallery, Carmel, CA
2007 Bonner David Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ
2008 Chapungu, Family Show, Loveland, CO

Agnes Nyanhongo 
Collections & Workshops:
1990  Yorkshire Sculpture Park
1997  Fort Canning Park, Singapore
1997  Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
1998  Old State House, Hartford
1999  Palmengarten, Germany
2000  Royal Botanic Gardens, England
2001  World Art Foundation, Holland
2001  Missouri Botanical Gardens
2005 Franklin Park Conservatory, OH
Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, USA

Agnes Nyanhongo

Selected Exhibitions: