First Floor Gallery opened a collaborative exhibition by Gresham Nyaude and Anne Mutema entitled In Black and White last night.

The title is an expression of the desire by both artists to express their views on life experiences here and now, without pulling any punches.

Their pieces reveal ideas and images that are challenging and disturbing, showing both a depth and insight in contrast of the colorful levity often expected from the young.

Nyaude, a native of the Mbare suburbs puts his neighborhood under scrutiny. He depicts his subjects in fragments, outlining psychological insights of a world that only an insider can communicate.

He shows life in broad daylight and in the depth of night, in all its complications, pain and beauty, awkwardness and desire, showing intimacy and human vulnerability.

“As artists we are sharing with you how we feel,” he says of his work..

Mutema’s work is a dark room installation composed of suspended figures in diffused sinister red light. She takes her audience into a world of uncertainty, where time and space shift roles and emotions are so conflicted that intuition has to take lead.

Mutema explains: “My work is about memories that stick out in our everyday life. It is about time, how things happen simultaneously not concurrently.”

In Black and White runs until 21 October. Find First Floor Gallery at 2^nd Floor, Mercury House, 24 George Silundika Avenue, Harare (between First Street Mall and Second Street). Opening hours: 10am – 6pm, Monday to Saturday, other times by appointment.