Talent

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Perlagia Mutyavaviri

Biography

Perlagia Mutyavaviri was born in Harare in 1977. She started sculpting at the age of 24. “My inspiration came from Fanizani Akuda and Sylvester Mubayi, who also provided me with my first tools and raw stones,” she explains. After just six months of immersing herself in the vibrant stone carving culture which flourishes in Chitungwiza, Perlagia sold her first sculpture to an American collector. Shortly thereafter she started working with George Mubayi, an accomplished sculptor with an international reputation who likes to push the boundaries of the Shona art movement. “George was very inspiring,” she says. “He gave me courage. He taught me to work on hard stones. There were no easy tasks for me, so that made me a hard worker.” Perlagia is one of most promising artists to emerge from the small but growing group of Zimbabwean women carvers. Sculpting, which is all done by hand, is physically strenuous and was initially to preserve of male artists. Women traditionally have expressed their artistic talent in a myriad of ways such as batik painting, weaving, lace making, fabric design and embroidery. In the past two decades, however, women have been taking to stone. Mentored, often by the most respected and established male sculptors, woman are now gaining international exposure and critical acclaim for their work

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

In 2002 Perlagia won a competition for promising new Zimbabwean sculptors sponsored by art patron Kristen Diehl and supported by the German government. She travelled to Germany to accept the award and to represent her colleagues at an exhibition of their collective work. In 2004 Perlagia was the artistin-residence at Rice Lake V, Canada’s annual outdoor exhibition of Shona sculpture. Her work has sold to private collectors and galleries in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, the US and Canada.

Talent

Perlagia Mutyavaviri

Biography

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

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