blank is pleased to present Mavara angu azare'vhu, a solo exhibition by Kresiah Mukwazhi (b. 1992, Harare). Comprising a selection of new mixed media paintings and textile collages, the works on exhibition represent a shift inward for the artist as she wrestles with intimate questions of grief, embodiment, and transformation. Mukwazhi states,
“Tanganyika, meaning “where the world begins,” is also where this body of work begins. It marks a journey I took to the lake of the same name, to realise the answers to some profound questions about land and death. In this process, I allowed myself to enter the terrain of mortality, to examine where the body is ‘cut’, where it remains sacred and intimate, and where it calls for healing. From this inquiry, the contoured landscape technique emerges as both method and metaphor, mapping a passage through grief toward self-understanding.
The title of the exhibition, Mavara angu azare’vhu, borrows from a Shona proverb that traditionally cautions against hypocrisy. For this exhibition, I release it from its original warning and reshape it into a meditation on becoming: the messy, viscous, and often uncomfortable process of dissolution. It is a stage of growth that demands courage.
This courage finds form in SiO₂; fiery vulvas embody transformation through heat and rupture. The deep red of the red jasper stone is invoked to echo the fascia of the vagina, as also seen in the works titled fertile, which trace the intimate relationship between the vulva and women's voices. This connection is activated through acts of intimacy, including the gaze turned inward. In my self-portraits, one created before dissolution and another after, where the figure appears bald, I confront and reconcile with my own body. Drawing my own image and writing an apology letter to my vulva become gestures of repair, opening a pathway toward reclaiming my own voice and agency.
The painting titled over my dead body reflects the death of a former identity, an alchemical stage of burning and decay necessary for the emergence of sovereignty. It may also be read as commentary to the internalized religious and societal scrutiny imposed on women’s bodies. Through this symbolic burial, inherited expectations are laid to rest, making space for a self-defined state of being.
As a whole, the exhibition engages with emotional responses often cast as negative–such as trauma, shame, fear, morbidity, lust, or sadness–and all of which are held and processed through the body. The exhibition thus functions as a portal of transmission, grounded in the understanding that adversity, while deeply felt, is ultimately temporary.”
Mavara angu azare’vhu is Mukwazhi’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. It coincides with the presentation of the artist’s work in the Boros Collection in Berlin and the final weeks of Shanduko nhema at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig. Following her inclusion in In(Visibility) of Violence at Kunsthalle Gießen in 2025, the exhibition also comes ahead of Mukwazhi’s participation in the NGV Triennial 2026 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, opening in mid-December. Mukwazhi lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.
“Tanganyika, meaning “where the world begins,” is also where this body of work begins. It marks a journey I took to the lake of the same name, to realise the answers to some profound questions about land and death. In this process, I allowed myself to enter the terrain of mortality, to examine where the body is ‘cut’, where it remains sacred and intimate, and where it calls for healing. From this inquiry, the contoured landscape technique emerges as both method and metaphor, mapping a passage through grief toward self-understanding.
The title of the exhibition, Mavara angu azare’vhu, borrows from a Shona proverb that traditionally cautions against hypocrisy. For this exhibition, I release it from its original warning and reshape it into a meditation on becoming: the messy, viscous, and often uncomfortable process of dissolution. It is a stage of growth that demands courage.
This courage finds form in SiO₂; fiery vulvas embody transformation through heat and rupture. The deep red of the red jasper stone is invoked to echo the fascia of the vagina, as also seen in the works titled fertile, which trace the intimate relationship between the vulva and women's voices. This connection is activated through acts of intimacy, including the gaze turned inward. In my self-portraits, one created before dissolution and another after, where the figure appears bald, I confront and reconcile with my own body. Drawing my own image and writing an apology letter to my vulva become gestures of repair, opening a pathway toward reclaiming my own voice and agency.
The painting titled over my dead body reflects the death of a former identity, an alchemical stage of burning and decay necessary for the emergence of sovereignty. It may also be read as commentary to the internalized religious and societal scrutiny imposed on women’s bodies. Through this symbolic burial, inherited expectations are laid to rest, making space for a self-defined state of being.
As a whole, the exhibition engages with emotional responses often cast as negative–such as trauma, shame, fear, morbidity, lust, or sadness–and all of which are held and processed through the body. The exhibition thus functions as a portal of transmission, grounded in the understanding that adversity, while deeply felt, is ultimately temporary.”
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Mavara angu azare’vhu is Mukwazhi’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. It coincides with the presentation of the artist’s work in the Boros Collection in Berlin and the final weeks of Shanduko nhema at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig. Following her inclusion in In(Visibility) of Violence at Kunsthalle Gießen in 2025, the exhibition also comes ahead of Mukwazhi’s participation in the NGV Triennial 2026 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, opening in mid-December. Mukwazhi lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.
