Eckel Nyamhondoro
Eckel Nyamhondoro was born in 1972 in Guruve District, a region with strong sculpting tradition. He comes from a large family; his father had 4 wives and 28 children.
At the age of twenty Eckel joined his .cousin Enos Chengo at his sculpting studio where he stayed for four years. He found the experience inspirational and decided he wanted to devote his life to art. He later joined Tengenenge Art community where he was an active member for eight years, two years he spent at Edronce
Rukodzi Studios, further enhanced Eckel's skills and encouraged him to experiment more and to develop his own style.
Eckel enjoys monitoring young artists and was invited to run a workshop in St Andreasberg in Germany 2002 as part of the African- German cultural exchange.
Eckel draws on tribal mythology for inspiration and his pieces have a spiritual contemplative quality. He depicts the unity between man nature in the hope of encouraging his viewer appreciate that connection; he truly sculpts in the round defying the viewer to decide which is the front or the back of the sculpture, a hall
mark of his work is the elaborate derailing on many of his sculptures with intricate chis~ling work.
His experience in a number of group exhibitions, most notably the Museum of Modern Art in san Diego (1997), the second Agio International Symbosium (2005), the African Millennium Foundation Travelling Exhibition (2006), the Kirstin bihl Competition, organized by the Germany Embassy (2006) Eckel was invited to a Fund raising exhibition of Shona Stone Sculptors for the benefit of HIV; AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe which, was organized by the Germany Embassy in collaboration with Zim-Art and in partnership with National Gallery of Zimbabwe in November 2006.
Eckel represent Zim-Art in Canada since '2001. In 200S Eckel organized a culture week exhibition with the 'theme CUL TUREFOR SURVIVAL. Eckel spent the summer of 2008 in Germany, He ran a workshop at Skulpturengalerie Sylt on Sylt, an island in the Northern Sea. and in Franconia at two other galleries. Into Africa close to Nuremberg, and Atehier Rapp in Obervolkach. He taught kids from the age of 8-15 years. Shona Art Centre received a certificate of participation from the Sanganai Tourism Expo held in Harare on 16 0ctober 2010 through Eckel Nyamhondoro's exhibition.
His work has been galleries and collection in the USA, European Union, Asia and Africa.
in 2017, Eckel worked at Sunview College which is located in Mayambara Chitungwiza as an Art Teacher. April 2017, he did international workshop at Kuimbashiri in lake Chivero with his 8 students, 4 from Sunview College, from Switzerland and they were sponsors too, 1 from Mexico and the other one from America. In May 2017, Eckel and his students exhibited culture work at Harare gardens and the National Gallery selected his 4 sculptures from his students for National Schools exhibition which were held in June 2017 at the National Gallery. His students received certificate of participation and two of them received highly recommended certificate. December 15 2017, Eckel and his 15 students compiled at Artistic Africa which was held in Chitungwiza Art Centre and one of his students received a trophy of 3rd position, the sponsors and the Judges were from America. In 2018, Eckel opened his own 15 students. He teaches age from 4 years and above. September 2018, Eckel went to Kuwait for government program which was organised by SADC Embassies and it was SADCC culture work exhibition.