Sylvester Mubayi

Visual Artist

Belonging to the internationally acclaimed class of the first generation stone sculptors, Sylvester Mubayi was born in 1942. He joined the Tengenenge Sculpture Community in 1967 as one of its first members and later worked at the Workshop School founded by Frank McEwen in Vukutu.

He has also served as an artist in residence at the Chapungu Sculpture Park. Mubayi currently lives and works in Chitungwiza; his sculptures are inspired by stories of spirits and the supernatural. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe held a retrospective of his life’s work in August 2008 to much acclaim.

Sylvester Mubayi is a venerated old man, one of the first generation of Zimbabwean stone sculptors to achieve international exposure and acclaim. Like most first-generation stone sculptors of his time, their works were/are heavily influenced by highly cherished values and beliefs, and as an elder, he teaches and advises the younger members of his community through metaphor and storytelling – and his sculptures always tell a story as well.

Sylvester is one of the last surviving links to the early days of modern Zimbabwean stone sculpting. His ability to pay attention to detail echoes in all his artworks resulting in him being singled out as one of the finest artists to emerge in Zimbabwe in terms of stone sculpting.

Way back in 1969, he scooped the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Award subsequently bagging other accolades and recognitions from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The period 1967 up to 1990 witnessed Sylvester blossoming into a national and international icon through his regular participation in high profile exhibitions, most of them hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

The spectacular exhibitions that he participated in include Solo Exhibition, Somerset, UK, Custom and Legend: A Culture in Stone, Kew Gardens, London and Sculpture Contemporaine des Shona d’Afrique, Musée Rodin, Paris amongst others. Sylvester was also included as one of the top ten sculptors in the world by The Guardian in 1991.

The 1980s saw him being a major participant in most of the group and solo exhibitions hosted by the Chapungu Sculpture Park and Matombo Gallery, aesthetic spaces run by Roy Guthrie and the late Roy Cook respectively.

He travelled a long artistic beginning at Tengenenge spanning decades. 2017 witnessed this revered artist making history by being the first artist from the older generation to attend and participate in the 57^th Venice Biennale. His attendance and participation was facilitated by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

With his best works being flaunted in a number of world museums, galleries and public places and universities, including private collections, Sylvester symbolizes the development of stone sculpting and how this form of art that is uniquely Zimbabwean penetrated the world market.

Together with others of his ilk (both living and dead), they are the epitome of Zimbabwean stone sculpting art and their footprints will forever remain embossed on the international art scene, particularly stone carving.— NACZ.