Learning & Research Hub

Sharing Stories, Shaping Solutions: MHC Gallery to showcase two Zimbabwean artists

Posted by LINCZ Staff  |  Monday, August 10, 2026 @ 9:00 AM

In celebration of the Sharing Stories, Shaping Solutions: Community Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa conference taking place at Canadian Mennonite University in October 2026, MHC Gallery has partnered with the CMU and the LINCZ project to feature an exhibition of contemporary Zimbabwe art.

MHC Gallery has worked in collaboration with First Floor Gallery in Harare to present work by two contemporary artists:

The late Calvin Dondo was an internationally acclaimed photographer and advocate for the photographic arts. Widely regarded as a leading figure in contemporary Zimbabwean photography, he used his camera to explore questions of identity, culture, memory and heritage. His influence extended beyond his own artistic practice: in 2002, he founded the Gwanza Month of Photography, a festival that ran for more than a decade and created opportunities for emerging photographers across Zimbabwe.

Dondo's long-term project, "Tales of Resistance," reflects his commitment to documenting stories of endurance and cultural survival. For more than twenty years, he photographed Tonga communities in Binga, northwestern Zimbabwe, whose lives were profoundly affected by the construction of the Kariba Dam. Between 1955 and 1959, more than 57,000 Tonga people were displaced to allow for the construction of the Kariba Dam. Through his photographs, Dondo recorded their experiences, resilience and emotional strength, helping preserve an important part of Tonga history.

Binga AP 11, Calvin Dondo, First Floor Gallery, Harare, 2014

Anne Zanele Mutema is a conceptual installation artist whose work explores materiality, space, memory, identity, and phenomenology. She was born in Harare in 1988, where she continues to live and work. Mutema graduated from the National Gallery Visual Art Studio in 2010 and studied cinematography at the Zimbabwe
Institute of Photography and Cinematography in 2009. Her practice developed through efforts to connect visual art, material processes and time-based media.

Through immersive installations, Mutema creates dialogue between audiences, objects, and events. Her work is engaged with creating, capturing, and recreating lived experience in relation to self, culture, and history. She also works with processes of recycling and repurposing.

Mutema's work has appeared in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and in international festivals. She has also participated in the Toronto Biennial and the Joburg Art Fair. An emerging artist of growing international recognition, she is currently completing an MFA at OCAD University in Toronto.

Sanative Pains, Part 4, Zanele Mutema, First Floor Gallery, Harare, 2025.

Sanative Pains, Part 5, Zanele Mutema, First Floor Gallery, Harare, 2025.

CMU is committed to research dissemination that extends beyond academic audiences and engages the public in accessible, experiential, and creative ways. Through its research partnership with Mennonite Central Committee in the LINCZ project and role as co-host of Sharing Stories, Shaping Solutions, CMU seeks to foster dialogue that connects research, lived experience, and community action. The MHC Gallery, a community'centered and interfaith gallery located on the CMU campus, provides a space where these conversations can extend beyond conference sessions and engage a broader public audience.

These exhibitions complement the conference's exploration of community climate resilience by providing opportunities to encounter stories of adaptation, displacement, memory, and agency through artistic practice. By inviting audiences to engage with experiences that cannot always be conveyed through scholarly presentations alone, the exhibitions create additional pathways for reflection dialogue and connection between researchers, practitioners, artists, and community.

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to attend a special preview reception at MHC Gallery before the exhibition opens to the public.

Biographical and exhibition information for Calvin Dondo and Anne Zanele Mutema was adapted from materials provided by First Floor Gallery Harare and from the artists' pages on the gallery's website. The exhibition text for Calvin Dondo's "Tales of Resilience" was written by curator Valerie Kabov.