AUDIO
MAGICAL WOMEN
Audio 14/14
14.
Portia Zvavahera
0:00
AUDIO
Portia Zvavahera
In her paintings, Portia Zvavahera processes dreams—not as fantasy or coincidence, but as messages.
In Western traditions, people often see dreams as a reflection of the subconscious. In the spiritual tradition of the Shona people from southern Africa, to which the artist belongs, dreams provide a connection to God and to the ancestors. For Zvavahera, they give access to knowledge that, though not rational, nevertheless has power—so dreams can serve as a guide.
Her pictures arise from such inner visions. Instead of telling linear stories, they create dense visual spaces in which bodies, patterns, and emotions overlap. Her painting is gestural and ornamental, and she often combines it with printmaking techniques. Colors dissolve, condense, and blur—as if in a dream.
In Embraced and Protected in You, Zvavahera processes a personal experience: she and her sister were both pregnant at the same time. A net of lace wraps around three female figures—the two sisters and their grandmother, who acted as their spiritual guide. The lace represents protection and connection. The figures appear enraptured, their bodies exaggerated, distorted, almost transfigured. The scene conveys care and vulnerability.
The painting Fighting Energies, in turn, speaks of fear and inner strength. Ghostly beings emerge from a misty space of color, hands reach into the void, animal-like figures appear. This work captures a sense of menace—and by capturing it, takes away its power.
Zvavahera’s works are deeply personal, and at the same time form part of a collective memory. They combine biography with spirituality, individual experience with cultural memory. Her images open up spaces and possibilities between the visible and the invisible, between body and spirit, between this world and the next.
In Western traditions, people often see dreams as a reflection of the subconscious. In the spiritual tradition of the Shona people from southern Africa, to which the artist belongs, dreams provide a connection to God and to the ancestors. For Zvavahera, they give access to knowledge that, though not rational, nevertheless has power—so dreams can serve as a guide.
Her pictures arise from such inner visions. Instead of telling linear stories, they create dense visual spaces in which bodies, patterns, and emotions overlap. Her painting is gestural and ornamental, and she often combines it with printmaking techniques. Colors dissolve, condense, and blur—as if in a dream.
In Embraced and Protected in You, Zvavahera processes a personal experience: she and her sister were both pregnant at the same time. A net of lace wraps around three female figures—the two sisters and their grandmother, who acted as their spiritual guide. The lace represents protection and connection. The figures appear enraptured, their bodies exaggerated, distorted, almost transfigured. The scene conveys care and vulnerability.
The painting Fighting Energies, in turn, speaks of fear and inner strength. Ghostly beings emerge from a misty space of color, hands reach into the void, animal-like figures appear. This work captures a sense of menace—and by capturing it, takes away its power.
Zvavahera’s works are deeply personal, and at the same time form part of a collective memory. They combine biography with spirituality, individual experience with cultural memory. Her images open up spaces and possibilities between the visible and the invisible, between body and spirit, between this world and the next.