ZIMBABWEAN artist Isheanesu Dondo has just exhibited his works at RMB Latitudes.
RMB Latitudes is an indoor-outdoor art experience aimed at celebrating the creative spirit, fostering new relationships, connecting artists and galleries to buyers and the public, and creating new opportunities.
RMB and Latitudes Online joined forces to bring RMB Latitudes — an innovative new indoor-outdoor art experience — to Johannesburg during the beautiful early-autumn month of May.
Last month, May 26 to 28, 2023, more than 40 galleries and 250 artists brought their art to Shepstone Gardens, a magnificent three-acre property.
Dondo was one of the artists with their work on display.
Dondo, who has been a professional artist since 2012, said participating in the RMB Latitudes was a step in the right direction.
“This was my first time to showcase at an art fair and I was very excited,” Dondo told The Bulrushes.
“It’s always good for an artist to showcase on such a stage. It gives one a sense of motivation.”
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The central curatorial theme for the 2023 edition was “co-emergence”.
“In the context of African art, co-emergence refers to the complexities embedded in the interaction of various cultural and aesthetic influences on the creation and interpretation of African art,” says Latitudes special projects curator Nkhensani Mkhari.
Looking back, Dondo says it’s been a struggle.
“Fine art is still little understood, especially in Shamva where I live,” says the former university biochemistry student.
He left the study of biochemistry to pursue his art career, honing an enigmatic style that moves between figuration, symbolism, and abstraction.
“I have been a full-time artist since 2012. It is really difficult to live off art when starting out,” says Dondo.
“I primarily work in pen and ink to make line drawings inspired by Cubism, stone sculpture, and Ancient Egyptian art and philosophy.
“So it’s really strange for a lot of people to understand the life of a full-time artist.
“It’s only recently that the subject is finding more attention in the public school curriculum.”
After more than a decade of hard work with little reward, Dondo says things are improving.
Last year, his work was presented in London as part of a collaboration between Guns & Rain and StArt Art Gallery.
“I was lucky to be subsidised by my parents and friends over the years,” Dondo says.
“Fortunately, I also got the help of various galleries that support upcoming talent.
“They helped provide both material support and exhibition space.”
He said he was also grateful for the support he received from various entities, including The Corridor (Harare), Artillery (Harare), First Floor Gallery (Harare), Althuis Hofland (Amsterdam) and Guns & Rain (Johannesburg).
“So over time, my work started selling and I can say that I can now sustain myself from proceeds/sales,” Dondo says.
“I am now represented by Guns & Rain Gallery and that has made my work much easier.
“They handle the marketing, shipping, logistics and training. Now I can fully concentrate on the creative and production side of work.”
Speaking about his art style — pen and ink drawings that are minimalist, tender and imbued with longing — Dondo says he was “greatly influenced” by Tapfuma Gutsa, with whom he spent a lot of time when he was “starting out and depressed”.
He said Gutsa encouraged and mentored him by pointing out books to read, and artists to study.
Many Zimbabweans are finding it very hard to thrive in an economy that has been on the decline for decades.
Those who can run away from Zimbabwe keep doing so, but for others like Dondo, circumstances have forced them to weather the storm.
Frustrated by the terrible living conditions in Zimbabwe, many young people have resorted to drugs or suicide.
Dondo said he had suicidal thoughts when his artist career seemed to be headed nowhere. Fortunately, he turned to his mentor, Gutsa, for help.
“He talked me out of suicidal thoughts,” recalls Dondo.
Today, things are looking up. Dondo said his latest exhibition at RMB Latitudes expanded his horizons.
Asked what his greatest achievement has been so far, Dondo smiles and says: “Being able to relentlessly pursue a dream despite being dead broke half the time and facing discouragement for as long as I have”.
Artist’s biography
Guns & Rain is pleased to present a selection of works by self-taught Zimbabwean artist Isheanesu Dondo (b. 1985).
Dondo’s eclectic and wide-ranging interests include science, astronomy, religion, myth and the esoteric.
He left the study of biochemistry to pursue his art career, honing an enigmatic style that moves between figuration, symbolism and abstraction.
Replete with mythical and magical symbols, many of which recur across his works, Dondo’s pen and ink drawings are minimalist, tender and imbued with longing.
His influences include the Hermetic Philosophy of ancient Egypt, divination practices in Shona religion (and their link to the use of binary code in computing) and Zimbabwean artists and stone sculptors including Mukomberanwa, Gutsa, Gwetai and Zvavahera.
Dondo’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at the National Gallery in Zimbabwe, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2018-19), at Guns & Rain, and with Althuis Hofland Fine Arts in the Netherlands (2019).
In 2022, his work was presented in London as part of a collaboration between Guns & Rain and StArt Art Gallery.
Dondo is also a writer and has written an autobiography titled Chasing the Sun, which is still to be published.
