Shona Stone Sculpture from Zimbabwe - Locardia Ndanderika in Golden Verdite

Description

I am a physician who has been working regularly in Zimbabwe for the last 6 years. I have become friends with Locardia Ndanderika after taking care of her great-granddaughter and have been collecting her work ever since. "Swimming Bird" was sculpted in 1989 in golden verdite and was purchased from her in Harare in 2018.
While frail, Locardia has maintained her position as one of Zimbabwe’s most prominent female artists of the First Generation of Zimbabwe Stone Sculptors. In 1990 she was invited to the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand and her sculpture is still on public display there. She has exhibited and held workshops in the United States, Holland, South Africa and New Zealand since 1997.
Locardia
was born in 1945 in Bindura (northeast of  Harare), Zimbabwe. As a young girl, she learnt to make clay models of animals using traditional methods. In 1964, she married Joseph
Ndanderika
one of the foremost First Generation stone sculptors of Zimbabwe. Their marriage lasted for 14 years and during this period Locardia became an accomplished sculptor, despite Joseph’s efforts to dissuade her. Seven of her sculptures were included in the seminal exhibition
‘Sculpture Contemporaine des Shonas d’Afrique’
at the
Musée Rodin
, Paris, France in 1971.
In 1986, she joined the workshop at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe to develop her artistic career. She was invited to work at
Chapungu Sculpture Centre
, the most prestigious gallery and sculpture community in Zimbabwe. Her sculptures have been shown regularly since then in the annual Zimbabwe Heritage Exhibitions and at numerous local and international galleries.