HARRISBURG – Global and humanitarian issues are the subjects of Chaz Maviyane-Davies’s graphic posters on display March 15-April 9 in the Rose Lehrman Art Gallery on the Harrisburg Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.
The artist will present an “illustrated talk” 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 18, in Whitaker Hall, room 214. A reception and poster signing in the gallery will follow.
Maviyane-Davis, a professor at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, keeps close ties with his native Zimbabwe by being involved in African liberation efforts. He is described by the UK’s Design Magazine as “the guerrilla of graphic design.” During the 2000 and 2002 elections in Zimbabwe he ran graphic activism campaigns in which he created a poster a day and sent them out electronically.
In the artist’s words: "Over the years I have tried to use images and ideas to cut through complacency and apathy while trying to raise consciousness about an array of social issues from discrimination and human rights, to health and the environment. Creating an alternate vision as my expression in a pervading regressive body politic has never been easy, but design is my weapon and therein lies the challenge I call ‘Creative Defiance.’" He is working on a book with the same title.
Maviyane-Davies spent a year in Japan studying three-dimensional design and 10 months in Malaysia working on various world-reaching design projects for the International Organization of Consumers Unions and JUST World Trust. His design work in London includes time with Fulcrum (Design Consultants), Newell and Sorrell Design Ltd., as well as a stint in the Department of Graphic Design of BBC Television. From 1983 until 2000, when he came to the U.S., he was the principal of The Maviyane-Project, a design studio in Harare, Zimbabwe.
His work has been published in numerous international magazines and newspapers, and his design work has been acknowledged in Who’s Who in Graphic Design, First Choice: Leading International Designers, Rewriting the Rules of Graphic Design, Digital Portfolios Unzipped, Graphic Agitation 1 & 2, Graphic Design Timeline — A Century of Design Milestones, World Graphic Design, Celebrating Posters, Area: Showcasing 100 of the world`s most innovative emerging graphic designers, History of Graphic Design, Design for Dissent, International Poster Excellence, Anatomy of Design, Designer Portraits and Lovely Language. Maviyane-Davies exhibits his work around the world.
Maviyane-Davies has a master’s degree in graphic design (with distinction) from the Central School of Art and Design in London and an advanced diploma in postgraduate film-making from the Central St. Martins School of Art and Design London. In 2009, he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Maviyane-Davies also was the first recipient of the Anthon Beeke International Design Award, Amsterdam, and was recognized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with an award for outstanding innovator in his commitment to the struggle to transform society and create a just future.
Maviyane-Davies set up www.AgitNet.org to promote expression through online exhibitions and to enable forums of discussion around relevant social and humanitarian subjects. His work can be viewed at www.maviyane.com.
All Rose Lehrman Art Gallery events are free and open to the public.
Gallery hours are 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays or by appointment. For more information, call 780-2435 or e-mail Kim Banister, gallery curator, at kebanist@hacc.edu. Visit the gallery on the HACC website: www.hacc.edu under the Rose Lehrman Arts Center and on Facebook.
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