Wycliffe Mundopa
Harare, Zimbabwe. 1987
Biography
Wycliffe Mundopa (b. 1987, Rusape, Zimbabwe) was raised in the high-density suburbs of Harare, and his art career started in Mbare. He is a firsthand witness to the intimate and informal cultural structures that simultaneously exploit and empower women.
His compositions stand out for a strong female presence, challenging gender stereotypes with nuanced and skillful representations that shed light on the reality of people’s lives in Harare. Mundopa refuses to judge his subjects, presenting them as equals, each treated with the same level of attention and artistic energy.
Mundopa is a passionate advocate for the lives of the most vulnerable. His works consistently address social and political upheavals. Filled with pathos and grandeur, they offer a painful and vibrant insight into how women’s lives reflect conflicts between tradition and change in contemporary Zimbabwean life. An avid student of art history, Mundopa urgently advocates for the importance of portraying the life of his country and contemporaries with the same emotiveness and grandeur as Dutch masters like Rubens and Rembrandt, positioning himself as an heir to that great tradition that Europeans guard jealously.
At a time when there is a renewed push towards exoticization and self-exoticization in African art, Wycliffe Mundopa counteracts with raw honesty and the brutal beauty of his figures. His talent has drawn critical attention and recognition from collectors internationally since his early youth, with works in collections ranging from Norway and Thailand to Cameroon, the U.S., Hong Kong, Nigeria, France, Israel, Australia, Kenya, the Netherlands, as well as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
CV
Wycliffe Mundopa
Born 1987 in Rusape, Zimbabwe.
Lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Education
National Certificate in Fine Art – National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Arts Studios – 2007
Solo shows
2021
- ZVA_nyadza – FNB Art Joburg Prize – Johannesburg Art Gallery Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare
2020
- 1001 Afternoons, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
2019
- Latitudes Art Fair Solo Presentation, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
- NAIROBI, HERE WE ART! Out of Africa Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2018
- Tomorrows/Today, Solo Presentation, Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
- Swab Art Fair, focus on painting from African and African diaspora, Eva Barois-De caeval curator, First Floor Gallery Harare, Barcelona, Spain
2014
- Dramascapes, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Group shows
2021
- Africa on my Mind, Ethan Cohen KuBe, Beacon, USA
2020
- Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
- Afrique Nouvelle Vague: Bullets, Fetisches, Paintings, Graffiti,…, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, USA
2019
- Summer Group Show, Out of Africa Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
- Day & Night, Mundopa / Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Harare Fauves (Mundopa, Nyaude, Teed) Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2018
- Defying the Narrative, Ever Glold Projects, San Francisco, USA
2017
- Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
- AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
- FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Another Antipodes / urban axis, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
- Hello Harare, Collaging the City, First Floor Gallery Harare
2016
- Art 16, London, First Floor Gallery Harare, London
- Volta, Firts Floor Gallery, New York
- FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa, First Floor Gallery Harare
- “I’ am because you are”, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Cape Town Art Fair 2016, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare
2015
- Flaunt, Africa New Wave Now, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, NY, USA, First Floor Gallery Harare
- FNB Jouburg Art Fair 2015 – Johannesburg, South Africa, SA, First Floor Gallery Harare
- Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
- Myths of Harare – Comune 1 Gallery / Ebony Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
- FNB at Joburg Art Fair 2014, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
- No limits Exhibition (Harare International Festival of the Arts), First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2013
- Nude, Naked, Nature Exhibition ar Iroko Arts Consultants, Nairobi, Kenya
- 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London, I
- Berliner Liste Art Fair 2013, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
- Chiso / Face, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
2012
- Inexatly This, Kunstvlaai Festival of Independents, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Harare Haarare Exhibition, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Berlines Liste Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Berlin, Germany
- Joburg Fringe Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Painting Perfomed by First Floor Gallery Harare at Chimanimani Arts Festivel, Chimanimani, Zimbabwe
- Harare Beyond Words, Brian Curtin curator, Gallery H – Bangkok, Thailand
2011
- Reaching Out Exhibition, First Floor Gallery at Chimanimani Arts Festival, Chimanimani Zimbabwe
- Jeune Zimbabwean, Le Pavé d’Orsay, Paris, France
- Austral >< Afric, First Floor Gallery Harare, The Basement Nightclub, Harare, Zimbabwe
2010
- First Steps, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Month of Printmaking Exhibition at Dzimbanhete Art Interactiones, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Live and Direct exhibition and Prize, National Gallery of Zmibabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Artists in Stream, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2008
- Enriching Woman Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
2007
- Let’s Get Together Exhibition, Gallery Dleta, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Young Painters Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Peace through Unity in Diversity, Exhibition and Prize, Gallery Dleta, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Young Artists Exhibition, Gallery Delta, Harare, Zimbabwe
- Final Year Show, National Gallery Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Awards & Institutional Collections
2021
- Winner of FNB Art Prize
2018
- Ilana Goor Museum Collection, Jaffa, Israel
2017
- Right at the Equator Collection, Los Angeles, USA
- Africa First Artist Residency / Africa First Collection, Tel Aviv, Israel
2016
- Art 16 London Villa Lena Prize, London, IK
2015
- Lluis Coromina, Foundation, Barcelo, Spain
2013
- Museum of Moden Art of Equatorial Guinea
2007
- Special Mnetion, Peace Through Unity Exhibition and Prize, European Commission, Gallery Delta – Harare Zimbabwe
- National Art Merit Award, Prize for Outstanding work in two dimensions – Harare, Zimbabwe
