Rex Mhiripiri builds Midwest’s largest Shona sculpture gallery
In Bloomington, Minnesota, Zimbabwe-born artist and entrepreneur Rex Mhiripiri has created the largest privately owned Shona sculpture gallery in the Midwest. His space celebrates Zimbabwean artistry through gleaming stone figures that connect craftsmanship, commerce, and culture.
Inside a quiet Bloomington gallery filled with gleaming stone figures of mothers, lovers and elephants, Rex Mhiripiri has built what he calls the largest privately owned Shona sculpture gallery in the Midwest. Named after him, the gallery has become a leading U.S. hub for Zimbabwean stone sculpture.
Born in Zimbabwe and originally a self-taught painter, Mhiripiri says his journey into Shona sculpture began with deep curiosity and respect for craftsmanship. “I travel a lot,” he said. “I go to Zimbabwe many times a year, spend time with the artists, learn about their process, and buy their work to ship here.”
He no longer takes pieces on consignment. “I own every piece of art in my gallery,” he said proudly.
Over the years, Mhiripiri’s relationships with sculptors have deepened, and his Bloomington gallery now attracts collectors from across the U.S., Europe, and beyond. Shona sculpture is traditionally hand-carved from serpentine, springstone, verdite, or opal, hard stones native to Zimbabwe. The style often draws on African myths, folklore, and family themes.
Pointing to several works in the gallery, Mhiripiri described their symbolic roots. One piece showed a man morphing into an elephant, another a figure transforming into a rhinoceros with a horn protruding from his forehead and scales across his body. Other themes might be more familiar to Western viewers such as mothers cradling babies, lovers embracing, all polished to a gleam.
“The shine comes last,” he explained. “Artists use water to smooth the stone and wax to polish it.”
Though the sculptures may appear randomly placed, each is carefully cataloged and curated. Several featured artists, Mhiripiri said, have exhibited at major institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and museums across Europe.
He also commissions pieces, often by simply calling one of his artists. “I’ll phone Michael and say, ‘Make me a couple of elephants.’ I might mention the stone, size, or timeline, but the style I leave to him.”
Visitors often get more than just an art viewing; they might get a lesson in geography and culture.
“Shona is a tribe,” Mhiripiri often explains, “and Africa is vast, bigger than the U.S., Australia, and Canada put together.” Stacks of books in the gallery showcase the sculptors’ backgrounds and traditions.
His gallery, he said, is guided by both appreciation and practicality. “I understand the stories behind the art,” he said. “But this is also a business. I buy to sell, to support myself and my family.”
Mhiripiri takes pride in his achievements. He owns his gallery building outright, a structure he had built himself at a cost of $1 million. “If you find another Black man in the U.S. who owns an art gallery building of this scale,” he said with a smile, “let me know.”
His art business, he added, helped put all seven of his children through college. “All of them have degrees,” he said. His daughter, Dr. Rhoda Mhiripiri-Reed, is a Harvard graduate and current superintendent of Hopkins Public Schools.
Mhiripiri is candid about pricing and the art market. “People are groupies for success,” he said. “Important names command higher prices. Some pieces have sold for more than a quarter-million dollars.”
Despite commercial success, he maintains that his work is rooted in values and faith. “I’m a Christian,” he said. “To me, all professions, doctor, artist, garbage collector, are equal in God’s eyes. What matters is your motivation.”
He also distances himself from traditional Zimbabwean religious beliefs, which he calls “paganism grounded in ancestral worship and fables.”
Through his gallery, Mhiripiri blends commerce, education, and cultural preservation. “People want to know the artists’ names, their ages, what kind of stone this is,” he said. “They build their knowledge, and that’s part of what I provide.”
As for the future of Shona sculpture? “It’s only growing,” he said.
“Some of these artists are in major books, museum catalogs, and exhibitions in Europe and America. The art form is ancient, but it keeps evolving.”
In a market often shaped by Western tastes, Mhiripiri sees his gallery as both a cultural bridge and a beacon. “People don’t buy the art because it’s Zimbabwean,” he said. “They buy it because it’s art, and they like it.”
For more information, visit www.shonasculpturemhiripir.com.
Scott Selmer is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. He welcomes reader responses to sselmer@spokesman-recorder.com.