Artist: Chaka Chikodzi
Title: Whale Tail, 2016
Media: Springstone
Size: 60”h x 15”d x 30”w
Notes: metal rod at the bottom

Provenance:
Mann Collection, St. Catharines, ON since 2022
Artist’s studio

(on the property of 13th Street Winery)

CAN $8,200.00

Description: Whales are not native to Zimbabwe, so their presence in Chaka Chikodzi’s work reflects his contemporary vision and cross-cultural perspective. The whale’s tail, in particular, evokes movement, guidance, and transition, symbolizing the navigation of life’s currents and the bridging of worlds. By incorporating imagery beyond traditional Shona motifs, Chikodzi expands the language of stone sculpture, creating works that are both rooted in ancestral material and fully engaged with modern, global ideas.

Carved from springstone, a dense serpentine from Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke, each piece is hand-selected for its color and texture and sculpted in Canada with careful attention to the stone’s natural history.

This sculpture was purchased by John Mann for the sculpture garden at 13th Street Winery, inherited by his daughters, and is now available for sale—offering collectors a work of cultural depth and notable provenance.

Collector’s Note: Zimbabwean stone sculpture gained international recognition in the late 1950s and 1960s through the Shona sculpture movement, with artists carving serpentine and other stones from the Great Dyke into spiritually grounded, often abstract forms. Pioneers such as Sylvester Mubayi and Bernard Matemera established Zimbabwe as a major centre for contemporary stone carving. Over time, economic shifts led many artists to migrate, expanding the tradition globally while maintaining strong ties to its material and cultural roots.

Chaka Chikodzi represents this diasporic generation. Trained in Zimbabwe and based in Canada for over two decades, he continues to carve stone sourced from the Great Dyke, blending tradition with themes of migration and identity. The market for Zimbabwean sculpture remains steady, with strong demand for master carvers and high-quality stone works, while artists like Chikodzi attract collectors interested in both authenticity and contemporary cross-cultural narratives.