Gallery Guichard is staging an eight-month, citywide presentation of Shona sculpture, connecting Zimbabwean artists, Chicago institutions and cultural exchange.
Gallery Guichard is presenting “Soul of the Stone”, an eight-month cultural and artistic experience focused on Zimbabwean Shona stone sculpture across Chicago. The programme brings together more than 150 sculptures at partner galleries and civic and cultural venues, while placing the work within a broader story of artistic exchange between Zimbabwe and the United States. Its centrepiece is a commission for the Field Museum’s new Africa Hall, due to open in 2028.
The exhibition is led by internationally recognised Zimbabwean sculptor Ishmael Chitiyo, who has been commissioned to create the Field Museum work. Gallery Guichard describes the presentation as one of the largest and few Shona sculpture exhibitions in the United States, giving audiences an opportunity to engage with the relationship between stone, spirituality and Shona artistic tradition. The programme also features artists including Chenjerai Chiripanyanga, Lovemore Bonjisi, Owen Mlungisi and Tawanda Seremwe.
Public openings are scheduled at several Chicago locations. The programme lists events at Garfield Park Conservatory on September 5, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events on September 11, Gallery Guichard on September 18, South Shore Cultural Center on September 26 and the Field Museum on October 3. Each venue extends the exhibition beyond a single gallery setting and links the artworks to different neighbourhoods and public institutions.
The sculptures are presented not only as finished objects but as part of a process rooted in Shona culture. According to Gallery Guichard, each featured sculptor draws inspiration from the mbira, a traditional Shona musical instrument whose sound is understood as a call to the ancestors. That framing gives the citywide format a dual purpose: it showcases contemporary work while introducing the cultural references and artistic history that inform it.
The project also reflects Gallery Guichard’s role as a Chicago-based cultural destination focused on artists from across the African Diaspora. The gallery says it has spent 21 years building connections through exhibitions, educational programming, international cultural exchanges and community engagement, and has previously placed Shona works in private and corporate collections. With “Soul of the Stone”, those activities are extended into a distributed public programme whose lasting marker will be Chitiyo’s sculpture at the Field Museum.
