THE BULAWAYO ANNUAL EXHIBITION Is an annual exhibition designed to celebrate the pinnacles of southern region achievements in the visual arts. A platform to experience the very best artwork Bulawayo has to offer, in the form of paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints and craft by from professional and emerging artists.
The Annual Exhibition is a curated project presenting artists whose work would have not been shown anywhere, seen alongside some of the best artists today. Through the Annual Exhibition, the Gallery will offer support and encouragement especially to the emerging artists through our local and international residency programs, Life Drawing Classes and workshops throughout the following year.
The National Gallery intends to use the Annual Exhibition to identify, support, promote and award outstanding talent such as Best Female Artists, Young Artist of Promise and Overall Outstanding Artists for 2020. Ultimately, the Gallery will collect and conserve contemporary masterpieces in several media that reflects the enthusiasm, relevance, originality, diversity and soul of the people of the region and beyond.
The emphasis is to encourage artists to produce their best works for the local and international community to see and collect talent, in so doing promoting the visibility and viability of art and playing a fundamental role in the positioning Zimbabwean artists in the world art market.
Locally, the Annual Exhibition will be didactic on the pedagogies of Zimbabwean culture, history, present reality, and futuristic envisions powered by digital formulae. The Annual Exhibition of Bulawayo will initially be held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, and also includes awards ceremony, related activities such as Friday Late and the Bulawayo Conversations between December and February 2021. The annual exhibition will then incorporate Mat. South, North, Midlands and Masvingo provinces.
In 2021 the Annual Exhibition will also incorporate private studios doted around the city creating space for art and culture professionals to meet and participate on various platforms like exhibitions, presentations and workshops pursuing and interrogating the current state of art and curatorial practice in the country.
It is the mission of the National Gallery to shape the curatorial practice in Zimbabwe and enable new players to occupy the creative spaces, spearheading the visibility of Zimbabwean art locally and across the globe. To facilitate the artists retuning back home to adapt, improve, transform and implement home grown solutions to our creative work. The Annual Exhibition reassures a solid base of direct interactions with local and international buyers in a friendly environment.