Dreams, prayer and spiritual transformation converge in a deeply intimate exhibition that reveals the emotional and ritualistic dimensions of the Zimbabwean artist’s practice.
Portia Zvavahera, Buda zuva rakanaka, 2026. Courtesy of Stevenson and David Zwirner.
Entering the galleries at Norval Foundation, one is immediately drawn into the dreamlike universe of Portia Zvavahera. The exhibition Tanda rima unfolds as an immersive and emotionally charged environment where colour, pattern and gesture carry viewers across the porous boundary between the physical and the spiritual.
Curated by Tayla Hollamby, the exhibition builds upon the artist’s earlier Cape Town presentation Pane rima rakakomba (“There’s too much darkness”), extending an ongoing meditation on vulnerability, care and the pursuit of spiritual light. The title Tanda rima, loosely translated from Shona as “Chase away the darkness”, resonates throughout the exhibition.
Rooted in Shona, the language in which Zvavahera lives, thinks and dreams, the works present a deeply personal narrative shaped by motherhood, spirituality and transition. Moving through the galleries, the paintings oscillate between confession and prayer, each canvas carrying the emotional residue of dreams, memories and lived experiences.
Zvavahera’s work often emerges from the terrain of dreams. Growing up in Harare, both her mother and grandmother recount their dreams to one another each morning. It becomes a familial ritual in which dreams are treated as meaningful narratives rather than fleeting images of the night.
Zvavahera is encouraged to share her own dreams as well, and she recalls that it feels almost embarrassing if she does not have one to recount. Over time, painting becomes a way to hold onto these nocturnal visions. The studio evolves into a space of release where the emotional intensity of dreams transfers onto the canvas. Through this process, art becomes both an act of remembrance and a form of healing.
Installation view of ‘Tanda rima’ at Norval Foundation. Courtesy of Norval Foundation.
That sense of emotional excavation is palpable throughout Tanda rima. Zvavahera’s large-scale compositions envelop the viewer with luminous colour and dense patterning. Figures appear suspended within these layered surfaces, emerging and dissolving as though passing between different planes of existence. Some kneel in prayer, others gather in groups or stand in quiet contemplation. Their bodies are sometimes elongated, sometimes spectral, and often rendered with minimal detail, giving them an apparitional quality.
One of the exhibition’s most affecting works, Gamuchirai minamato (“Receive my prayer”), depicts figures gathered beneath a tree in communal prayer. The composition radiates a collective sense of supplication and care. Another new work, Nzimbo tsvene (“A holy place”), introduces angelic presences guiding souls toward sanctuary. These paintings are inspired by prayers for the artist’s grandmother, and their emotional register carries both tenderness and spiritual urgency. The works suggest a yearning for protection, for peaceful passage, and for the quiet illumination that faith can offer in moments of uncertainty.
A recurring motif throughout the exhibition is the luminous tree. Appearing across several canvases, its branches spread outward as though sheltering the figures beneath it. The tree becomes a powerful symbol of sanctuary, suggesting a place where grief and hope coexist. Within Zvavahera’s visual language, the natural world often functions as a bridge between earthly experience and spiritual presence.
The surfaces of the paintings reveal the artist’s distinctive process. Layers of gestural brushwork merge with stencilled patterns that recall Zimbabwean textile traditions and block printing techniques. Patterns repeat, overlap and dissolve into one another, creating compositions that feel rhythmic and almost musical. The paintings seem to breathe through these accumulations of colour and mark, as if each layer is added to shield the fragile figures from unseen forces.
Zvavahera’s imagery also carries echoes of her spiritual upbringing. Raised within the intertwined traditions of Indigenous Zimbabwean belief systems and Apostolic Pentecostal Christianity, her work reflects a worldview in which dreams, rituals and communal prayer remain deeply significant. The figures inhabiting her canvases often appear as spiritual emissaries rather than simply human subjects. Owl-like creatures, hovering presences and angelic forms suggest that unseen realms are never far from the everyday.
Standing before these works, the emotional gravity of the paintings becomes unmistakable. The figures loom at a scale that feels both intimate and monumental. Their forms, sometimes rendered as near-chalk outlines, hover between visibility and disappearance. This delicate tension between presence and absence creates a powerful psychological charge within the paintings.
Installation view of ‘Tanda rima’ at Norval Foundation. Courtesy of Norval Foundation.
Yet despite the underlying sense of unease that sometimes surfaces within these dreamscapes, the works never surrender to despair. Instead, they offer a vision of transformation. Darkness appears not as a final state but as something that can be confronted and gently dispelled through acts of faith, memory and artistic devotion.
Born in 1985 in Harare, where she continues to live and work, Zvavahera has built a body of work that is both intensely personal and culturally resonant. Her paintings draw from her Shona heritage, her Pentecostal upbringing and the deeply ingrained practice of listening to dreams as messages that carry meaning.
At Norval Foundation, Tanda rima reveals an artist who continues to expand the expressive possibilities of painting while remaining anchored in the intimate rituals that shape her life. Walking through the exhibition, one senses that each canvas serves as an invocation. The paintings do not simply depict dreams. They enact them, transforming the gallery into a space where private visions and communal belief converge in a quiet yet profound act of illumination.
The exhibition at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town closes on 6 September 2026. For more information, please visit Norval Foundation.
Suzette Bell-Roberts is the Co-founder and Digital Editor of ART AFRICA magazine.
