Shatha Afify and Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu awarded the G.A.S. Fellowship Award 2025

The call received over 130 applications from 18 different countries across the continent. A selection panel comprising G.A.S. Executive Director Moni Aisida, independent researcher and curator Dr. Jareh Das, artist and Y.S.F. Trustee Doug Fishbone, Deutsche Bank Curator of International Art Mary Findlay, artist and Y.S.F. Advisor Bob and Roberta Smith, and entrepreneur and G.A.S. Trustee Ugoma Ebilah carefully reviewed candidates and selected the Fellows. We thank them for their time and dedication throughout the process.

The winners of the 2025 G.A.S. Fellowship Award: Shatha Afify, an Egypt-based interdisciplinary artist, storyteller, poet, and thinker, as the Visual Arts Fellow and Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a Zimbabwe-based curator and writer, as the Curatorial Fellow. 

Afify is excited to levrage Lagos as a springboard to develop a network of peers and potential cross-disciplinary collaborators across the continent. During her residency, she will also lead a workshop as part of the Ìmòra Arts Intensive, a week-long professional development programme hosted by G.A.S. that supports emerging local talent. The session will address the challenges and opportunities faced by emerging artists in Africa, focusing on topics such as navigating the art market and exploring multidisciplinary approaches to art-making. Emphasis will be placed on how different mediums can complement each other and contribute to a cohesive project methodology. Dr Mushakavanhu meanwhile, plans to use the residency to develop a site-specific exhibition at G.A.S. Lagos, building on his existing research and practice in experimental narrative exhibition-making. The exhibition will transform the space into an installation that introduces audiences to African literature through a combination of images, text, and sound.

Shatha Afify (b. 1987, Cairo), also known as Shatha Aldeghady, is an interdisciplinary artist, storyteller, poet, and thinker whose practice weaves together sound, performance, sculpture, and multimedia to explore the terrains of conflict, loss, and resistance. Her work delves into the ethical quandaries of adulthood and awareness, using sound as a storyteller and silence as a space for resilience. Afify is deeply preoccupied with the complexities of existence—choosing positions, taking stands, and the enduring struggle for freedom and dignity, themes she first explored in her early work Dare to Doubt (2015).

Positioning herself as a disruptor of power structures, Afify’s art embodies covert acts of rebellion. She invites audiences to engage with the intricate dance between justice and power, resistance and complicity, as seen in her latest work, Contemplating a Decision (2024), from her series Decision - Forgotten + Remembered (2023–2024). Through her practice, she creates contemporary archives that reflect on her time, offering possibilities for reimagining the present and future. Afify’s art has resonated globally, with exhibitions in Egypt, Europe, and the United States, and residencies at institutions such as the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Her tailored curatorial lens inspires a culture of experimentation, togetherness, and collective action within the art community, as demonstrated in projects like The Act of Touch (2020–2023). Afify’s work is not only a reflection of the world but a call to question, resist, and transform it.

Shatha Afify. Photographer: Matthieu Croizier.

Tinashe Mushakavanhu is from Harare, Zimbabwe. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Kent. He is a writer and curator whose work deeply engages with archives, literature, and the intersections of African cultural history. His curatorial practice is informed by a keen interest in how archival material and literary narratives shape our understanding of identity, memory, and global politics. Drawing on these interests, he creates exhibitions that explore the complexities of history, authorship, and representation while questioning dominant narratives. He is passionate about creating spaces for collaborative learning exemplified by projects such as Tambira Labs, a co-working space that he co-created in a supermarket in downtown Harare; and Black Chalk & Co. a travelling research design studio that he co-founded to challenge conventional publishing frameworks using experimental methodologies, fostering dialogue and reflection on the evolving narratives that shape contemporary African cultures. He is currently writing an institutional biography of a once popular Pan African book fair.  

Tinashe Mushakavanhu. Photographer: Nonzuzo Gxekwa.