• Dana Whabira, Process - Circle of Uncertainty (5), 2017

    Dana Whabira, Process: Circle of Uncertainty (5), 2017 © Photo: Raphael Chikukwa, courtesy the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

  • Dana Whabira, Black Sunlight, 2017

    Dana Whabira, Black Sunlight, 2017. Neon and video with sound, installation view. © Photo: the artist, courtesy the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

  • Dana Whabira, Black Sunlight, 2017 - 2

    Dana Whabira, Black Sunlight, 2017. Neon and video with sound, installation view. © Photo: the artist, courtesy the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

  • “Measure The Valleys”13ème Parcours d’art contemporain en vallée du Lot,présenté par la Maison des Arts Georges et Claude Pompidou,du 1er juillet au 2 septembre 2018www.magcp.frhttp://www.magcp.fr/project/measure-the-valleysparcours-dart-

    Dana Whabira, Circles of Uncertainty (8), 2018. Ink on paper, neon, 5.60 x 1.96 m, installation view. © Photo: Yohann Gozard, courtesy of MAGCP/Maisons Daura.

  • Dana Whabira, Kutetereka, 2018

    Dana Whabira, Kutetereka, 2018. traces on landscape, variable dimensions. © Photo: Yohann Gozard, courtesy of MAGCP/Maisons Daura.

  • Dana Whabira, Drawing (work in progress)

    Dana Whabira, Drawing (work in progress) © Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Dana Whabira (UK/Zimbabwe) is an artist and cultural facilitator, who lives and works in Harare. Trained as an architect, she employs a research-focused, context-driven experimental practice concerned with space, cartography and giving shape or form to critical understandings of how we can live together. Her recent work centres on the role of women in the production of space in Zimbabwe.

During her residency at Delfina Foundation, Dana intends to research the gendered, colonial and botanical histories of collecting plant material and knowledge from Africa through the lens of women-centred earth-healing praxis in Zimbabwe. The research will also examine the Wellcome Materia Medica Collection and Herbarium, as well as the Kew Gardens Collection of Economic Botany.

Dana is the founder of Njelele art station, an independent project that focuses on research, experimentation and exchange. It is there to generate a critical gaze on society and history and interested in notions of interconnection, community and conviviality. Dana has exhibited widely, in addition to taking up art residencies and giving talks locally and internationally. Her first solo exhibition Suspended in Animation was held at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (2013). She has participated in a number of group exhibitions including Undefined Territories, MACBA, Barcelona (2019), Cosmopolis #1.5 Enlarged Intelligence, Mao Jihong Arts Foundation, Chengdu (2019), Measure the Valleys, Parcours d’art contemporain en vallée du Lot, Maison des Arts Georges & Claude Pompidou, Cajarc (2018), Tracing Obsolesence, Apexart, New York City (2018), and Towards Intersections, Museum of Africa, Johannesburg and UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria (2015). Dana represented Zimbabwe at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and participated in the Dak’Art Biennale (2018), Mercosul Biennale (2020) and Kampala Art Biennale (2021).

Dana was born in the UK, and lives and works in Zimbabwe.

In partnership with

Wellcome Collection

and additional support from

Delfina Foundation’s Network of Africa Patrons

Residency Season

Summer 2023

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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.