NAMA award winning sculptor Victor Nyakauru will be holding a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare opening on the 7th of October 2010. The theme Creatures/Tuzvipuka is an exhibition on insects and animals created from stone, metal and bones. Creatures/Tuzvipuka is a follow-up to Victor’s first solo exhibition Insects/ Tumbuyu which was held at Mutare Gallery in 2008.

Creatures is a word that refers to many different types of animals such as insects, fish and birds. His themes are rooted in the world of these great and small animals that have inspired him with the creation of these creatures.

Some of these insects and animals have been used in our Shona folklore. Folk tales have been used to teach life lessons and to entertain. The construction and everything involved in folk tales revealed much about the essential values of a society. More so, his unique type of work reflects on the social life, gives advice and looks back at childhood memories.

Nyakauru’s selected mixed media piece titled Bete Resango refers to lazy people who spend most of their time roaming around aimlessly without anything to do and at the end of the day they expect sympathy. The sculpture Imbwa Nyoro depicts backstabbers, liars, people who pretend to be good yet they do bad things behind closed doors. In the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s Permanent Collection is one of Victor’s works titled Berejena made of stone, bone and metal.

In our culture berejena/white hyena is a sign of a bad omen because it is rarely seen. Victor’s works are a clever use of mixed media, original in conception and they epitomize the very diverse manifestations that have flowed out of the stone carving tradition. Nyakauru studied at the National Gallery Visual Arts Studios from 2005 to 2007. He won several awards at the National Gallery and is also the 2008 NAMA Outstanding Mixed Media winner and the NAMA People’s Choice in the Visual category.

Victor’s style of work is distinctive, allowing him to juxtapose unexpected and unrelated materials to create something new. His creatures are always in motion and as a result the insects and animals are very alive. This is an exhibition of contemporary sculpture from one of Zimbabwe’s young artist which explores sculptures that make a chill run through your body and at the same time makes your heart beat faster with fascination.

The exhibition Creatures/ Tuzvipuka is different from Nyakauru’s first project in the sense that Insecta/ Tumbuyu was an insects only exhibition, while Creatures is a mixture of animals, insects, fish and a bird. This show will however mark the end to Victor’s insects as he will explore wild animals in his next project.