Helen Teede
ABOUT
Teede's paintings are dream-like and expansive, with objects or bodies appearing and disappearing in pools of colour and dynamic brushwork. Her canvases juxtapose raw pigment applied in fluid washes with oil-painted figurative elements, a magpie gathering of images and life drawing. Influenced by personal experience and the psychological layering of physical presence in a place, she is interested in biopower and how we are entangled with the world. For Teede, raw pigment and oil paint have a living quality that allow for a responsive, phenomenological visual language. Her work is an ongoing enquiry into the tension between material and image, a duality that she sees as specific to painting.
Teede (b. 1988) grew up in Zimbabwe and currently lives between Zimbabwe and Italy. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Masters in Visual Art (Laurea Magistrale in Arti Visive) from IUAV University, Venice, Italy. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and museum shows around the world, and is represented by First Floor Gallery in Harare.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
— Relics, First Floor Gallery: Harare, Zimbabwe
2023
— Cocoon, First Floor Gallery: Harare, Zimbabwe
2022
— Ce la Faremo, Tong Advisory Soho Salon: New York, USA
2021
— Artemisia, First Floor Gallery Harare: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
2019
— Bare Limbs, First Floor Gallery Harare: Harare, Zimbabwe
2018
— Without Breaking Anything, Matter Gallery: Toronto, Canada
2017
— Unhomed, Showcase Gallery: Dubai, U.A.E
2016
— It is the Without, First Floor Gallery Harare: Harare, Zimbabwe
2015
— The Material Presence of the Past, Showcase Gallery: Dubai, U.A.E.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
— Taona, 3-person show, First Floor Gallery and Schwartzman & Projects: New York, USA
2024
— Kuvhunura: l’Ecole d’Harare, Fondation Blachere, Bonniex, France
— 58, PM/AM Gallery, London, UK
— TEARS: The Final Show, the Tracey Emin Foundation, TKE Studios: Margate, United Kingdom
— Landscape, Alice Folker Gallery: Copenhagen, Denmark
2023
— TEARS Summer Show, the Tracey Emin Foundation, TKE Studios: Margate, United Kingdom
2022
— See You Through It, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Worcester, MA, USA
— In the Zone, Alice Folker Gallery: Copenhagen, Denmark
— If you Will it, It is not a Dream: Zimbabwean Women Artists in Focus, Artemisia Art Advisory: Harare, Zimbabwe
— The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize finalist exhibition, The Norval Foundation: Cape Town, South Africa
2021
— Running – The New Contemporary, Qingdao Art Museum: Shanghai, PRC.
— Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are, with the Africana Foundation at the World Trade Centre: Geneva, Switzerland
— Paris Internationale, Artemisia Nova, solo presentation with First Floor Gallery Harare: Paris, France
— I Draw Therefore I Think, South South and First Floor Gallery Harare, Online and in Harare, Zimbabwe
— House Parté, Carlye Packer: Palm Springs, Los Angeles, USA
— Mundopa, Makaza, Rizhi, Teede, Tong Advisory Soho Salon: New York, USA
— Allegory and Intent, three person show, Nomad Gallery: Brussels, Belgium
2020
— Body Language, two-person show, Nomad Gallery: Brussels, Belgium
— Level: Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery Harare: Victoria Falls, Zimbabw
2019
— Interceptions, Matter Galery: Toronto, Canada
2018
— Five Bobh, survey of contemporary Zimbabwean art, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art: Cape Town, South Africa
2017
— Another Antipodes: Urban Axis, First Floor Gallery Harare and Another Antipodes Inc., PS Art Space: Perth, Australia
2016
— Harare: Mwandiambira + Tuazeni + Teede, three-person show, Hazard Gallery: Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
— Modern Painting, Kalk Bay Modern: Cape Town, South Africa
— Scripts of our Unspoken Words, Showcase Gallery: Dubai, U.A.E.
2013
— Greatest Hits of 2012, AVA Gallery: Cape Town, South Africa
RESIDENCIES AND GRANTS
2024
— Arts Council England Grant: Developing your creative practice, UK
2023/4
— Tracey Emin Art Residency, Margate, UK.
2018
— Africa First Residency, Tel Aviv, Israel.