guruve | contemporary african art

Guruve promotes the very best in contemporary African art, finding talented young artists and bringing their work to a wider audience.

Guruve specialises in contemporary stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, but we also promote artists from elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa who work in a wide range of media from oils to scrap metal.

At Guruve, we believe in doing business the right way. We treat artists with the respect they deserve, building long-term relationships based on friendship and trust.

Guruve raise over £9,000 for Mencap

At our 2008 shows we have displayed our sculptures on solid wood plinths provided to us by the Mencap Riverwood project. We are selling these plinths on behalf of Mencap (so 100% of the money goes to the charity). So far this year we have raised £3,850 for Greenwich Mencap. Last year we raised £3,180 and in 2006 the total was £2,125.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this fantastic total of £9,155 by choosing to display their sculptures on a unique piece of seasoned timber that has been reclaimed from the Thames and finished by hand by people with learning disabilities. If you would like one of these fabulous plinths, please contact Phil at Riverwood.

Group Sculpture Exhibition on the weekend of 8 - 10 August

We transformed the wonderful gardens at Hopleys Nursery into a sculpture garden, featuring works by a number of local sculptors as well as our own pieces of contemporary Zimbabwean sculpture.

The other participants were:

Janet MacLeod ARBS (Cambridge) 01954 231585 (Elected member of the Art Workers Guild and The Royal Society of British Sculptors)
Andrew Tanser BA ARBS (Cambridge) (Elected member of the Art Workers Guild and The Royal Society of British Sculptors)
Lucy Smith garden ceramics (London)
Graham Findlay from Much Hadham itself

Guruve's top artist Onias Mupumha joins us in the UK

Award-winning Zimbabwean sculptor Onias Mupumha was the Guruve.com Artist in Residence 2008 at our exhibition in June and at Chelsea Flower Show and Hampton Court Flower Shows.

We hope that everybody enjoyed meeting him, especially those of you who are already the proud owner of one of his wonderful sculptures. As a parting gift, we made him a photo album of all the proud collectors he had had the pleasure to meet during his stay.

Our 2008 exhibition was held on the 20 to 22 June - at Hopleys Nursery in Much Hadham in Hertfordshire.

Guruve's top artist Onias Mupumha wins first prize

Winners of the 2008 NAMA (National Arts Merit Awards) were announced on 13 Feb by Zimbabwe's National Arts Council. Our most popular sculptor Onias Mupumha won the three-dimensional category in the visual arts. This is such a prestigious event, like winning the Turner Prize for a young British artist, and Onias is over the moon. Guruve has sent him a little bonus to congratulate him. We've known for many years how talented he is, but how nice to have national recognition from Zimbabwe's arts elite.

The NAMA nominees also included Ishmael Chitiyo and, in the 2D category, Dumisani Ndlovu.

Guruve support Zimbabwean Home for the Elderly

On our latest visit to Zimbabwe we bought both sculptures that had been donated by artists Tago Tazvitya and Rickson Zavare ('Murehwa') at their joint exhibition. The funds went to the Bumhudzo Home For The Elderly in Chitungwiza, run by the Salvation Army. The home provides around 100 elderly residents with food, shelter, pastoral care and basic medical attention.

We also donated over £300 in brand new tools to the sculptors. This includes tungsten carbide tipped chisels and punches and over 500 claw bits.

We are the good guys in African art and we can prove it. In the seven years we have been trading we have given thousands of pounds in donations and gifts directly to individual artists and to group associations and charities. If you have any doubts about our ethics, find out more in our ethical business section. And challenge other promoters to see if they can prove they do the same.

Guruve win a prize at Chelsea Flower Show

We're delighted that we were awarded a Certificate of Merit for the outstanding presentation of our stand at the Chelsea Flower Show 2007. Many thanks to everyone who came and saw us there and welcome to new customers - thanks for making it the best show we have ever done!

A special gift to Zimbabwean mbira artist Stella Chiweshe

Performing at WOMAD 2006 was Zimbabwe's mbira queen Stella Chiweshe. It was an extra-special occasion for her as it was her 60th birthday. Tim from Guruve gave her a birthday present in person - a sculpture of an old lady entitled 'Ambuya' (Grandmother) by world-famous artist Nesbert Mukomberanwa. She is known as "Ambuya Chinyakare" (Grandmother of Traditional Music).

Stella was overwhelmed by the gift. It turned out that she had been good friends with Nesbert's uncle, the much-respected sculptor Nicholas Mukomberanwa, and he had promised to give her one of his sculptures but died unexpectedly before he could do so. Stella took the gift, with the very appropriate theme, as a gift from beyond the grave and could not have been more delighted. Happy 60th Stella!

Our latest celebrity endorsement...

"Guruve is a real find. I recently bought a fantastic sculpture by a famous Zimbabwean artist from them and it makes an eye-catching addition to my home. They really know their stuff and supplied me with tons of information, including details of the work they do locally to support the artists. For original works of African art at cracking prices, I couldn't recommend Guruve more highly."

Antony Worrall Thompson MOGB

Recommended Links

African Millennium
Another promoter of Zimbabwean sculpture with very similar ethical attitude to guruve's, who have been actively promoting female artists alongside our focus on young artists. We both feel we work together to promote the artists, rather than being in competition, and they get the thumbs up from us.

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