This vibrant mixed-media painting by a Zimbabwean artist combines oil on canvas with real braids, capturing a lively scene of women braiding hair outdoors. The composition highlights not just beauty, but the communal act of care, skill, and cultural tradition. The long braids extend from the painting into reality, blurring the line between art and life, making the viewer feel part of the moment. Each figure is painted with expressive detail—the concentration of the braiders, the calm of the sitter, the backdrop of township life—emphasizing the strength and creativity within everyday African rituals. Through this innovative fusion of paint and texture, the artist celebrates identity, heritage, and the timeless bond between women, where hairstyles become stories woven through generations.

Artgal.Online

Unity in Every Strand

This powerful mixed-media painting by Willard Magiga, an emerging Zimbabwean artist, merges oil on canvas with real cloth to create a vivid and textured narrative. At its center is an elderly woman seated at her sewing machine, a symbol of resilience, care, and the quiet strength that sustains families and communities. The incorporation of actual fabric bridges art and reality, making the piece both tactile and deeply symbolic. Magiga celebrates the dignity of everyday labor and the unspoken prayers of generations of mothers and grandmothers who stitched not only clothes but also the fabric of cultural identity. Through this work, he transforms a familiar scene into a timeless tribute to perseverance, heritage, and the artistry of survival.

A Mothers Prayer

“Gossiping” is a vibrant oil painting enriched with real braids woven into the canvas, blurring the line between art and lived experience. It portrays a familiar township scene where women gather to braid hair—a moment of beauty, intimacy, and conversation. Two women lean into each other, sharing stories and laughter, their bond captured in every stroke. The sitter, calm and patient, represents trust and tradition, while the background figure contrasts the foreground’s warmth with quiet detachment. By incorporating actual braids, the artist deepens the realism and symbolism, honoring African hair culture as a vessel of identity, heritage, and storytelling. This work reminds us that everyday rituals carry the rhythm of community and the power of connection.

Gossiping

Breaking into Life is a powerful allegory of renewal and transformation. In this large oil painting, human figures burst forth from the remnants of a giant eggshell, their movements full of urgency, wonder, and celebration. The egg, a universal symbol of origin and possibility, lies cracked open on a barren landscape, suggesting the fragility of beginnings and the resilience of survival. The figures, painted in dynamic motion, embody humanity’s eternal cycle of struggle, liberation, and growth. Some stumble, others dance, and many reach outward, symbolizing the diverse ways people respond to new freedoms and challenges. The vast horizon behind them hints at infinite possibilities, reminding us that rebirth is not an end, but the start of uncharted journeys. This work captures both the vulnerability and the strength inherent in human existence—an artistic meditation on emergence, hope, and the unbreakable will to live.

Breaking into Life

In this powerful and symbolic painting, Keith Zenda depicts people collecting kernels from a giant cob of maize, a scene that speaks to both resilience and vulnerability. Maize, the staple food in Zimbabwe and across much of Africa, is not only nourishment but also a symbol of survival and community life. By enlarging the cob to monumental proportions, the artist highlights its central role in sustaining families, while the the people embody the future generation whose well-being depends on it.

The work reflects the challenges faced by communities where access to food is uncertain and survival often requires immense effort. At the same time, the painting conveys hope — the idea that through shared responsibility, creativity, and empowerment, a better future can be built. Zenda’s art is both a tribute to resilience and a call for awareness, reminding us that the simplest resources, when valued and protected, can sustain life and dignity for all.

Goho - Harvest - Harare Zimbabwe

In this evocative piece, Keith Zenda reimagines a large cooking pot traditionally used in Zimbabwe to prepare mealie meal, the staple food at the heart of many family gatherings. Now weathered and resting on its side, it stands under a vast, sun-warmed sky, surrounded by figures whose movements and postures suggest fatigue, waiting, and quiet endurance. Some lean against the vessel, others sit or walk in the distance, their forms softened by a hazy, golden light. The earthy tones and gentle gradations of color evoke the dry season, when resources are few but community ties endure. By pairing this familiar symbol of sustenance with scenes of measured stillness, Zenda reflects on resilience in times of shortage, the ability to adapt, and the deep connection between shared meals and cultural identity. Rather than focusing solely on hardship, the work invites contemplation on how Zimbabwean traditions carry hope and unity, even in life’s leaner seasons.

Nyika Yezvishoma – Land of Little

This powerful and symbol-rich painting by Keith Zenda brings together themes of birth, vision, feminine strength, ancestral guardianship, and nature's duality. The cracked egg revealing an eye, flanked by a lion, elephant, and a skull on the ground, suggests deep spiritual awakening and the interconnectedness of life, death, and knowledge.

Mother of the Wild Spirit

white

yellow

orange

purple

dark blue

green

light blue

brown

black

Acrylic

Aquatint

Canvas

Chalk

Charcoal

Clay

Concrete

Embroidery

Graphite

Gold

Mixed Media

Metal

Oil Paint

Paper

Pastels

Pencil

Pigment

Resin

Tempera

Textile

Watercolor

Collage

Other

Film

Digital

Ceramic

Wire

Wood

Yarn

Stone

Porcelain

Marble

Glass

Plastic

Design

Drawing

Engraving

Etching

Linocut

Lithography

Painting

Prints

Screen Print

Text

Work on paper

Photography

3D Print

Performance

Sculpture

Landscape

Portrait

Very large

Large

Medium

Small

Very Small

Mudzimai weMusha (Mushamukudzi)

The Last Round

Stealth

Happy Woman

Watcher of Silence - Harare

Shongo yehushingu (Braided in bravery)

It's every Woman's Dream - Harare

Amazing

This virtual gallery presents the latest additions from the Artgal Zim Center in 2026—a carefully curated selection of contemporary Zimbabwean sculpture and painting. Each work reflects a dialogue between tradition and experimentation, material and meaning. Together, they offer collectors and viewers an intimate encounter with artists shaping Zimbabwe’s evolving visual language.

Contemporary Currents | Artgal.Online

2 round tables with marble tops

Artgal.Online

collection: Surreal & Whimsical

Material

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