White Space Gallery Celebrates Black History

With SHONA African Sculpture and Local Artists

New Haven, CT.-White Space Gallery celebrates Black History Month, February1- 28 with works by African American artists local to Connecticut, including Dr. John Blanton, Curtis Cofield, Imo Imeh, and Chris Ferguson, In addition, the gallery is spotlighting “Shona African Sculpture” from the first generation Shona Master Fine Artists of Zimbabwe. The opening reception is Saturday, February 4th from 10 to 6, the exhibit is free to the public and refreshments will be served.

A product of Zimbabwe’s largest tribe, Shona sculpture is less than 30 years old. The artists are influenced by the ancient spiritual beliefs of the Shona tribe, but their work is not directly linked to tribal rituals or culture, but is rather an artistic movement.

The Shona artisans use basic hand tools-simple hand-made chisels, hammers, rasps and sandpaper to craft their pieces. Some of the stones used are, Verdite, Butter Jade, Kwekwe Fruit Serpentine, and Leopard Stone.

Shona sculpture has been heralded as some of the most important art to emerge from Sub-Saharan Africa in the second half of the 20th Century.

Here’s what the press says about Shona art.

‘Shona sculpture is perhaps the most important new art form to emerge from Africa in this century’

-Newsweek, New York.

‘Unlike art found in much of the rest of Africa, Shone sculpture…has become a wholly indigenous art form created exclusively as a form of artistic expression’

-New York Times, New York.

‘The world’s best unrecognized sculptors’.

-The Economist, London

The Shona, who make up about 80% of Zimbabwe’s population, have an historic relationship with stone that is unique in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the only major stone ruin from antiquity is in Zimbabwe: the word itself means “Big Houses made of Stone” in the Shona language.

In the past ten years, prices as well as interest have soared for both primitive and contemporary African art. Unfortunately many of the Master First Generation Shona Artists have passed away, and the availability of their pieces are becoming increasingly scarce. This show includes some final works. We invite you to come experience this moving example of technique and skill at White Space Gallery.