Zimbabwean Wales-based artist Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure will be showcasing her debut solo exhibition, Nzwisa, at Pamoyo Gallery in Harare, this coming October.
Set to have it's opening the night of 17 October, and the exhibition will be on show to be public from 18 to 25 October.
Nzwisa marks a pivotal moment in Vazhure's journey from self-taught painter to an artist preparing to pursue a Masters in Fine Art.
“This exhibition represents a turning point. These works trace my evolution from painting as escape into painting as commitment to heritage, to freedom, and to a lifelong creative path." - Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure
Vazhure's practice began unexpectedly in 2022, when, while creating a promotional video for her NAMA-winning poetry collection Starfish Blossoms, she painted her first canvases to visually interpret the work. What started as an act of necessity quickly became a revelation, sparking an immersion into colour, texture, and storytelling through paint.
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The works in this exhibition chart her artistic growth, moving from early explorations into a more confident practice that draws deeply on themes of spirituality, ancestral memory, African womanhood, and migration. Acrylic is her primary medium, often layered with impasto and dot techniques to create richly textured surfaces that invite both visual and tactile engagement.
Inspired by the sacred landscapes of Zimbabwe central to Shona cosmology, as well as the Welsh countryside where she now lives, Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure creates art that exists in dialogue with land, memory, silence and sound. Through Nzwisa, Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure invites audiences into an intimate journey of becoming, where each painting is both a personal ritual and a universal celebration.
Vazhure's work has been selected for the Artful Prize (2025), Sokari London Charity Art Exhibition (2025), and Royal West Of England Academy (RWA) - New Black Narrative Group Exhibition (2024), among her several group showcases.
The self taught painter is also an accomplished bilingual author and literary activist. In 2020 she established the publishing house Carnelian Heart, and was named African Publisher of the Year in 2024.
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