On behalf of Omusana Review, I am delighted to present an interview with Richard Mudariki, artist and founder of artHarare Gallery. Mudariki is a well-respected artist whose paintings have been showcased in Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art and OSART Gallery in Milan. Over the past four years, artHarare has gained tremendous popularity as a platform for championing established and emerging Zimbabwean artists. Mudariki and his artists have caught the eyes of many curators due to their cohesive and impactful storytelling through art. Relying on found materials, as well as traditional artistic medias, such as painting and collage, artHarare has brought an innovative and vibrant exploration of contemporary Zimbabwean visual culture to the global art scene. Despite being a young gallery, they have managed to exhibit in Cape Town, Harare, London, New York and other global cities.
We spoke to Mudariki during the12th Edition of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair which took place in London’s treasured venue, Somerset House. Over sixty galleries participated in the fair; with ArtHarare presenting artists Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi, Richard Muchawaya and Wilfred Timire. Their showcase titled, Harare Gaze, explored Zimbabwean community life through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic. The art pieces – often whimsical, reflective, and celebratory—were a sharp observation of community life during a period of isolation and uncertainty. This focus on the community is reflective of artHARARE’s commitment to engaging issues that directly impact their immediate environment.
In our conversation—Mudariki takes us on a behind-the-scenes journey into the creative landscape impacting African artists and gallery owners on the continent. This insightful conversation allows us to see the many ways artHarare is bringing Zimbabwean contemporary art to the global stage while paying homage to the cultural traditions of the country. Please enjoy this wonderful interview.
LKL: Richard, I wanted to start by asking you to talk about artHarare Gallery, the artwork is captivating, whimsical and it truly stands out. Can you tell us about it?
Richard Mudariki: The gallery is called artHarare, we’re based in Harare and cape town, two cities in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It was established in 2020 at the height of covid and it has transformed from the digital walls to the physical walls. We work mostly with artists from Zimbabwe and its diaspora, both established and emerging. We’re specialists in contemporary fine art from Zimbabwe.
We wanted to create a platform with groundbreaking work from the country because we have always had amazing artists coming from Zimbabwe. We have the very famous Shona sculptures and now more contemporary artists creating amazing works from sculptures, installations, videos art, the whole genre of contemporary artmaking. So, we position ourselves as specialists especially when we come to international art fairs like 1-54 in London.
LKL: What has your journey been like, what has been some of the behind the scenes work to get here at 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair?
Richard Mudariki: The journey is always challenging; we’re a small gallery that was just established, we’re four years old so we’re still a baby. Resources are not always easily available, but we innovate, we’re creatives, and we always try to come up with ways to make things happen. We make a point that artworks by the artists who are doing amazing work should be showcased to the world. I think the journey has been wonderful; we started out online which meant even less resources, [yet] we were able to have a lot of people from different parts of the world enjoy the artists. Then, when we went into the physical space, we thought an ideal space for us to meet people that are interested in contemporary art from Africa will be at African art Fairs like 1-54. So, strategically we positioned ourselves to apply to those spaces and here we are.
LKL: The pieces you are showcasing today are quite different and captivating, can you speak a bit about the artists you brought [to this fair]?
Richard Mudariki:: I am showcasing three artists from Zimbabwe, we curated this exhibition and its titled Harare Gaze. All the artists live in Harare, in the capital city of Zimbabwe. [The pieces] are an interesting a mixture of portraiture of people in the city pre-covid and post-covid. One artist’s work is from pre covid 2018 and the other artists work focus on after covid. The show gives a different take on how these artists looked at faces and people in the city before this pandemic and after it. You can appreciate that we were locked in our houses and didn’t see each other for a long time and all of the sudden were able to go out in 2021-2022, travel again, see each other face to face without masks on our faces. So it’s such a lovely interpretation that artists were able to use their very expressive styles and unique ways of expression to create these beautiful works that we’re showing here in London.
LKL: I like this piece right there. Who is the artist?

Richard Mudariki:: That artist is Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi one of the leading and emerging artists in Zimbabwe. He’s doing quite well here in London. He has also had previous shows in London, so his profile internationally is growing. His work is influenced by his spirituality, he is a very traditional person, and he is inspired by his totem. So, totem in Zimbabwean culture, in Shona Culture is an animal you identify with your clan.
LKL We have similar tradition in Uganda [with] totems that identify your clan.
Richard Mudariki: That’s why you see there are these waves in his paintings, stripes of a zebra sort of these whimsical figures and portraiture. This whole exhibition is also about what he failed to see during lockdown. [So he is also capturing the mood] when he was able to go outside, when he was able to interact with the community again after months of being in lockdown.
That work is called Shwiro which means wish. So maybe it’s a wish to be outside because it’s a painting of little children playing in a field. Certainly, an interesting take on the subject matter of Harare Gaze.
LKL: I am interested in the title of your showcase, Harare Gaze, because as you said its capturing pre-covid and post-covid and there was that sense of isolation where the whole world was at a distance. We were all isolated and insulated and what we saw could sometimes be distorted, there was a sense of internalizing the gaze. And then coming out, masks taken off—so it’s interesting to see some of the art pieces where you can’t see the eyes and some where the eyes are enlarged, present, very dominant on the face.

Richard Mudariki: Definitely, to your point, you’re one hundred percent right. This is the work of Richard Muchawaya who draws these internal, sort of blank, abstract faces- what it represents is internal because we’re all not seeing each other. We have his lovely work before covid which you can actually see faces, this 2018 piece—[of a very] beautiful girl, going to school, smiling, life is normal. There is no fear of pandemic or anything.
LKL: There is proportionality to her features, you see the beauty and normalcy in her face.
Richard Mudariki: The only work that we have that is not a direct portrait, is this piece, of the very famous Sadio Mané, the all-time African great. It’s made by an artists called Wilfred Timire, one of the amazing talents coming out of Zimbabwe, and is a big example of how you can innovate to get materials within your surroundings and create amazing artworks. This beautiful tapestry talks about the game that everyone loves, of a famous person, which everyone knows, we don’t even have to see his face. Everyone knows who he is. And being in this space is perfect because all these portraits are watching the game and he just scored, his doing his celebration slide and we’re all watching from the sidelines. So it’s something organic in this space, it wasn’t planned or curated in that way. So Timire’s deep analysis and research of his surrounding found elements like packaging materials, weave them into tapestries, shaping, shifting conventional practices—it’s a creative expression based on new materials.

LKL: I love the material he uses because in Africa this is the material we use to store or package grain or charcoal. It is common mundane element of everyday life not at all associated with visual expression.
Richard Mudariki: Zimbabwe is obviously an agriculturally based economy, and our staple food is sadza it’s made from corn. The packaging material is in constant us; the sacks to keep mealie meal, the corn itself, to take the grain, there is so much of this material around and he picks it up and uses it in a creative way. In several of his paintings, it’s all about him commenting about his immediate environment in Zimbabwe. What’s happening, what he is observing, and its directly from materials from the community and sort reflects it in a unique way.
LKL: One great thing about this fair is that it allows African artists to present their immediate environment, simply because most [artists] have to use materials that are available to them. In some ways, this creativity should open the eyes of investors to say African Art is indigenous and very innovative.
Richard Mudariki: We need investors from home from Africa. If you look at how much talent we have… this is cultural capital. We are rich. A lot of artists creating amazing work, being innovative, creating groundbreaking work, I think some of these works must be seen on the continent and be celebrated on the continent. Institutions and collectors, government institution, should be beautifying their public spaces with these artworks. Government offices should put these artworks on the walls.
LKL: To show what their country is producing.
Richard Mudariki: They do it here in western countries and really appreciate the creativity of their artists, and I think that’s a leap we should all take.
LKL: I’m glad you’ve taken up this work at a time when it would be daunting to start a gallery. I want to ask one last question—[regarding] the digital space, the access afforded you to start a business, to reach a global audience through the digital space. Could you discuss the innovation of social media platforms such as Instagram and other digital spaces, how have they allowed you to make art available not just in Africa but globally.
Richard Mudariki: I’ve been a student of history and there are always these revolutions- stone age, iron age, industrial age and now we’re in the information age or digital age and Africa still lags behind. These innovations are shifting the direction the world takes. We’re in the digital age and the world has shifted. Everything is digital now. We bank online, we communicate online: your phone is the second most important thing –[and on] the continent we still lag behind on something we all have access to. I thought what a wonderful way for us to enter the art space and establish ourselves not only as producers but also as players in the field of contemporary art. Art history needs to be written and it needs to bd written by someone from the continent. Other people from the continent need to be involved in the direction of where contemporary African art goes. We can’t leave it the hands of other people because they have their own agendas. So, the digital space helped a lot especially for artHarare because I saw the trend when we all went to social media as we relied more on and more online. How can we integrate what we’re doing as artists? And obviously 2020 heightened it. Everyone was online. The artworld itself, which it didn’t use to be, also shifted online.
We thought that was an opportune time for us to enter. Then network, create platforms, work with as many artists as possible because we can be connected regardless of geographical location. You could be in Uganda, Canada, London or Zimbabwe and say we’re meeting at artHarare, here’s a link or a website. We’re all meeting and discussing, showcasing and doing things that ten years ago we couldn’t do. Someone would have said for that to happen here is a bill, it’s a bill for these people to travel, that visa, that passport etc.
LKL: I’ll end by asking if there is any advice or anything you’d like to add that hasn’t been mentioned?
Richard Mudariki: I always say, being an artist is one of the greatest privileges because you are able to express your views onto something that outlives you. If you go now to London’s National Portrait Gallery, you will find art that was painted 200 years ago, and the artists are long gone but we’re still looking at their work and their continuous legacy. So, I always say, if you are an artist I say respect your work, respect what you’re doing, be serious, if you really want it—its difficult but just know that you’re creating something that can outlive many generations. Always put your best foot forward.
LKL: Thank you so much Richard.