ArtGal.Online — Tsika Dzedu 2026

Introducing Tsika Dzedu 2026

Our Culture. Our Traditions. Our Art

ArtGal.Online: On 12th September the first exhibition and competition was held in Domboshava with a total of 37 aspiring artists. The turn out was so great that we doubled the prizes and gave each 2 prizes for the first, second and third places. 5 prizes of special recognition were given, one from each judge, one from the organizers and one from Mr. Raphael Chikukwa, the Executive Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Read all about it here!

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From left to right - Keith Zenda, Dennis Ruf and Raphael Chikukwa

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Tsika Dzedu: Zimbabwe National Exhibition & Competition 2026 Celebrates Art, Culture & Heritage at Artgal Zim Center

 

Tsika Dzedu: Zimbabwe National Exhibition & Competition 2026 Celebrates Art, Culture & Heritage at Artgal Zim Center

September 8–12, 2026 | Artgal Zim Center, Domboshava, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean art, culture, identity, and heritage take center stage this September with Tsika Dzedu: Zimbabwe National Exhibition & Competition 2026, an important new platform bringing artists and the broader cultural community together at the Artgal Zim Center in Domboshava.

Taking place from September 8–12, 2026, Tsika Dzedu will culminate in a vernissage and awards ceremony on September 12, celebrating the artists and creative voices participating in this year’s national exhibition and competition.

Following the main event, the selected artworks will remain on exhibition at the Artgal Zim Center for an additional three weeks, providing audiences with an extended opportunity to experience the work beyond the opening celebrations.

Celebrating Zimbabwean Culture

Tsika Dzedu centers on themes of culture, identity, heritage, and the traditions that continue to shape Zimbabwe. The exhibition provides artists with a platform to explore the many dimensions of Zimbabwean cultural experience while presenting their work to audiences both locally and internationally.

With the Artgal Zim Center serving as its physical cultural and educational base, the exhibition reflects Artgal’s broader mission of creating opportunities for Zimbabwean artists, expanding access to their work, and strengthening connections between local artistic production and the international art community.

Meet the Tsika Dzedu Judges

A distinguished three-person judging panel has been assembled to help select this year's winners:

Sampson Kuvenguhwa
Master Zimbabwean Sculptor

Malindi Odell
Head of Art Department, The Heritage School Zimbabwe

Leslie Johnson
Zimbabwean Artist and Arts Festival Organiser

Artgal Zim Center

Located in Domboshava, the Artgal Zim Center provides a physical home for Artgal’s growing program of exhibitions, cultural initiatives, artist opportunities, and educational activity.

Through its exhibitions and digital initiatives, Artgal.Online is developing a broader platform for contemporary Zimbabwean art—connecting artists, collectors, cultural audiences, and international communities while creating greater visibility for Zimbabwe's creative sector.

Tsika Dzedu forms an important part of that ongoing mission, bringing together artistic production and cultural heritage while creating new opportunities for Zimbabwean artists to reach wider audiences.

Discover the September Collector Journal

The latest Artgal.Online September Collector Journal expands on Tsika Dzedu, introducing the judging panel and exploring the artists, ideas, cultural heritage, Zimbabwean art, Shona sculpture, exhibitions, artist stories, collector insights, and the latest developments from the Artgal Zim Center.

Discover more about Tsika Dzedu and the latest news from Artgal.Online in the September Collector Journal, and read the full Miami Art Scene™ feature below.

Read the September Collector Journal:
https://www.artgal.online/journal-newsletter/newsletter-september/

Read the full Miami Art Scene™ feature:
https://www.themiamiartscene.com/from-domboshava-to-the-international-art-world-artgal-online-builds-a-new-platform-for-contemporary-zimbabwean-art/

Artgal.Online:
https://www.artgal.online/

Tsika Dzedu: Zimbabwe National Exhibition & Competition 2026
September 8–12, 2026
Artgal Zim Center | Domboshava, Zimbabwe
Vernissage & Awards Ceremony: September 12, 2026
Selected artworks remain on view for an additional three weeks.

#ArtistSpotlight --> Keith Zenda, Scrap Art, Mudzimai weMusha - Theme of Mushamukadzi - Artgal.Online, Thundorf Switzerland, 2024.

Keith Zenda, Scrap Art, Mudzimai weMusha - Theme of Mushamukadzi - Artgal.Online, Thundorf Switzerland, 2024. Mixed Media, 53 1/5 × 35 2/5 in | 135.1 × 89.9 cm.

We highlight artist Keith Zenda through ArtGal.Online. Keith Zenda is a leading contemporary Zimbabwean artist known for his distinctive visual language often described as “Zendaism.” His work combines bold symbolism, spiritual narratives, and elements of African mythology to explore identity, transformation, and human consciousness. Through expressive compositions and strong use of color, Zenda creates powerful, layered works that bridge tradition and contemporary thought. In addition to his artistic practice, he plays a key role in mentoring emerging artists and developing the Artgal Zim Center. This work may be viewed and purchased via Artsy.

With a growing presence across Europe, the United States, and Africa, Artgal.Online is committed to presenting authentic voices and narratives rooted in heritage, identity, and contemporary expression. The platform actively supports artists through international exposure, professional representation, and the development of sustainable art ecosystems, including its flagship initiative, the Artgal Zim Center in Domboshava. Download the Art Gal app, allowing you to view and place artworks directly in your space. Powered by Artplacer, the Art Gal app lets you view and place artworks from the gallery’s latest exhibitions directly onto your own walls. Move and explore each piece with a simple touch.

Experience the Afri-Facture exhibition at Amadlozi Gallery in the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center celebrating Black History Month

The Amadlozi Gallery at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center celebrates Black History Month with the eye-popping Afri-Facture exhibition! The exhibit Opens on Saturday, February 11th from 4-8pm.

You are cordially invited to the opening reception to mix and mingle with some of South Florida’s major fans of visual art and culture while exploring the motivated common themes behind collecting African artifacts, sculptures, paintings and more. 

The contemporary Black Atlantic visual art experience is deeply rooted in African culture. The pieces chosen for this exhibit exemplify those connections and personify, in part, manifestations of African retentions. Extensive anthropological research have been done on the connection between African indigenous culture and the Black Atlantic. Scholars have proved that customs, diet,  ….inevitably has a direct link between the Motherland and wherever we are in the new world. 

The exhibition features artworks from the following collections: 

Kay Crawford Collection 

Afri-Kin Collective 

Miami MoCAAD 

Amadlozi Gallery Collection 

Featured artists include selected works by Purvis Young, Jouons Sang D’Oeuf, Angele Etoundi Essamba, Ras Mosera, Rene Pena, Marjaries Marmolejos, A-Guy and Joshua Duron. The exhibition is curated by Bayunga Kialeuka and Joanne Hampstead. 

For More Info Call the Center at: (305) 638-6771.

Lightheflame presents ‘Victorious Tears’ Art Exhibition at Temple Emanu-El Gallery

 

Cassius Khumalo’s ‘The Valley Scape I’ (2021). Chalk Pastels, Acrylic, and Gold Leaf on Paper, 40 x 48 inches.

Lightheflame presents ‘Victorious Tears’ at Temple Emanu-El on Miami Beach, a provocative and pivotal art exhibition exploring changing values on two continents through established and emerging artists in South Africa and America. Artists like Asanda Kupa, Cassius Khumalo and Lawrence Chikwa, fast-rising in the Contemporary African Art scene, show us the vibrance of Africa and magic of ritual. The exhibit opened on April 20th; Temple Emanu-El is located at 1701 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach 33139 – Exhibition entrance is on 17th Street.

Mark Sabin, Null (2022), ‘Victorious Tears’ Exhibition

In the USA, celebrated local Miami artist Mark Sabin challenges us with a strange juxtaposition of subject matter. His work is featured in the exhibition, presenting a Black Madonna, images of forbidden love, and the mystery of the occult. The art gallery at Temple Emanu-El presents the ‘Victorious Tears’ exhibit at a time of transition, breaking of boundaries, recognition of scars and a need to embrace identity and value systems of all peoples.

‘Victorious Tears’ Art Exhibition at Temple Emanu-El Gallery

Designed as vignettes, the exhibition allows for a unique experience of a reality different to the one we know or could ever see on our own. Carefully curated from 4 years of living and being in South Africa, by Jessica Deutsch, Co-Founder & Director of Lightheflame. Deutsch began her career at Sotheby’s in New York as Director of Public Programs; she currently curates and works with contemporary African and European artists to connect them to American audiences and collectors. The art gallery at the Synagogue is made possible by the generosity and support of Dr. Jeffrey T. Apter, Congregant of Temple Emanu-El and Founder/President of Global Medical Institutes.

Lightheflame Co-Founders Dr. Jeffrey Apter and Jessica Deutsch

It was the ingenious idea of Lightheflame Co-Founder Dr. Jeffrey Apter to approach Temple Emanu-El as an exhibition space. From an arts & cultural perspective, the synagogue is located in the heart of South Beach across the road from the Convention Center where Art Basel takes place. Dr. Apter endowed the restoration of a section of the synagogue and brought in a designer to create an art gallery.

Cassius Khumalo, The Valley Scape II (2021), Chalk Pastels, Acrylic, and Gold Leaf on Paper, 40 x 48 inches

“We have this as an ongoing pop-up space for Art Basel week in Miami. We held our first exhibition during Miami Art Week 2021, ‘Discover the Invisible in African Art’, which explored the work of Andile Komanisi, Asanda Kupa, Cassius Khumalo, David Rubenstein, Happy Dhlame, John Vusi Mfupi, Laurel Holmes, Lawrence Chikwa, LayzieHound Coka, Peter Mammes, Roger Ballen, and Senzo Shabangu. Our artists enjoyed the opportunity of exposure to an international audience on Miami Beach during Art Basel,” said Dr. Apter.

Lightheflame Co-Founder Dr. Jeffrey Apter

“All our artists are already on secondary market in South Africa, and the African market is still priced at an affordable jump-off point for collectors. The art is a portal to a magical spiritual universe intrinsic to Africa and different from the West. Art is never about ‘self’ but the people and concern for the general well-being,” explained Jessica Deutsch, Co-Founder & Director of Lightheflame. With growing interest in Contemporary African art, many South African artists have now achieved international recognition. LightheFlame’s website and art gallery in Miami are dedicated to empowering artists in South Africa.

Works by Senzo Shabangu in the ‘Victorious Tears’ Exhibition

Lightheflame started as a grass roots movement in South Africa in 2013 when Jessica met the late Peter Clarke, a South African artist. Peter Clarke did not want to see emerging and established black artists suffer as he had suffered under Apartheid in 20th-Century South Africa. He mapped out a journey, which took Jessica from one artist studio to another across the country. The first exhibition, ‘The Voice of the Nation’, held at Stephan Weltz and Co., presented the work of emerging artists. They addressed visually the concerns of that moment as President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family held the state captive. The artists spoke about lack of land, the failure of a new Post-Colonial Democracy, and a dream for a better future.

Curator Jessica Deutsch on new art hub Lightheflame at The Gateway Hotel 2015

LightheFlame’s next exhibition was at the Gateway Hotel, Elandsfontein in South Africa – where the interior of a 1950’s hotel was transformed into a series of galleries so that the art was exhibited as experiences. Contemporary African Art in all its forms expressed what Art in Africa is all about; African Art from its earliest beginnings looks to a spiritual connection between the Creator and the spiritual world. The opening featured Sangoma women summoning the spirits, where music, dance, and poetry created a ritual like ceremony.

Asanda Kupa, Imihla Yorhwaphilizo (2021), Acrylic on canvas mounted, 51.20 x 57.10 inches

With growing interest in Contemporary African art, many South African artists have now achieved international recognition. LightheFlame’s website and gallery in Miami, Florida are dedicated to empowering artists in South Africa. Uplifting the artists means financial independence for them. In a country with 60% unemployment the focus of many galleries and institutions is to allow art making to be a means of economic survival. View the Lightheflame website, peruse the artists and artwork – all works are for sale online and at the gallery in Miami: https://lightheflame.com/