Artist Richard Mudariki’s Vision For A Zimbabwean Contemporary Art Fair

Majority of our audience are art collectors, curators, art institutions, journalists, art historians, art lovers, art students and artists By Tinashe Mushakavanhu In the past 20 years, a new generation of Zimbabwean artists has attained international acclaim, or emerged as stars with work showing at top galleries and museums, collected by prominent people such as Jay Z. One of these stars, Cape Town-based Richard Mudariki, is now using his growing fame and network to create a contemporary art fair to spotlight emerging artists in Zimbabwe. With it Harare has joined other major African cities like Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Marrakech and Kampala in bolstering its contemporary art scene. Mudariki co-founded artHARARE Contemporary Art Fair with art historian Aya Koudounaris. The first editions in 2020 and 2021 took place online in a time of COVID isolation. Now it’s expanding its scope by fundraising to take place in physical form in Harare sometime in November 2022. While fairs are marketplaces where various galleries display art for sale in order to attract collectors, artHARARE is also driven by a sense of community building. It is addressing a lack of infrastructure that continues to force young talent to look elsewhere for support.