Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, United States
August 28, 2025–January 19, 2026
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston presents Portia Zvavahera: Hidden Battles / Hondo dzakavanzika in the U.S. The exhibition includes a selection of recent paintings centered on the theme of animals, a reflection on their presence in her work, as well as the collective imagination. The artist draws from dreams to create fantastical paintings that evoke moments of transition and transcendence. Zvavahera’s work merges painting and printmaking techniques with motifs and patterns from Zimbabwean textile designs into vibrant and layered compositions. Zvavahera was raised in the traditions of African Pentecostalism, and across her work she engages with her Christian faith in equal measure to animistic cosmologies. For the artist, the act of painting is akin to an act of worship. Her figures commune with spirits, animals, and angels, and protective comforts and nightmares collide in otherworldly, stirring unions. Coinciding with Zvavahera’s exhibition, ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere and contributor to The New Yorker and Granta, held a conversation with the artist on October 7, 2025.
Learn more at ICA Boston.
