Following the recent grand opening of its new art space in Antananarivo, START Journal interviews Fondation H’s president, Hassanein Hiridjee, who stands as a key Contemporary Art practitioner on the continent today, with a keen interest in his unique individual
Read More >>
Category: Uncategorized
In this Design Hustle podcast episode, Patricia Opio speaks to Kamanzi R., a musician and songwriter. She tells us how she navigates the creative industry in Uganda and what drives her in her work as a musician.
Read More >>
Initiated by he Dutch-Belgian art collective TAAT, the Transdisciplinary Regenerative Encounter Residency Uganda (TRERU) focusses on regenerative, creative development and artistic commoning. Three artist/designers from the fields of theatre/performance, contemporary art and architecture/design are invited to stay and work for one month at our location in Ntinda, Kampala.
Read More >>
Afriart Gallery is a focal point of Kampala’s artistic community and provides a wonderful space to experience the exquisite art of Uganda. The gallery was founded in 2002 and has presented contemporary art for the past 15 years. Over this time,
Read More >>
Art is quickly overlooked as a source of employment and yet it holds a vast number of opportunities in any field of the arts. The best example might be the recent hype about the film Queen of Katwe, which has just ended filming in Uganda.
Read More >>
Eria Sane Nsubuga an academic at Christian University Mukono in the department of Fine Arts, says that referring to the work of others shows an awareness of self and others. “It is therefore natural given the residual western political and educational set up for African artists to refer to the work of the European masters that we saw in the Art History books. Incidentally those same books as a matter of design more than accident, said nothing about our own indigenous art.” he quotes in his essay, ‘Dead men tell no tales’.
Read More >>
Artists are continuously searching for inspiration for their art. Ideas often tend to be situated within their locale i.e personal experience, studio space, galleries, museums, workshops and artists residences. Yet there is another source of inspiration for many contemporary African artists: Western modern art.
An exhibition, Head, by Ugandan conceptual artist, Henry Mzili Mujunga at Afriart gallery, Kampala in 2014, showcased different connotation of the Head. The artist figuratively alluded to the vessel of knowledge and intelligence as dick head and spatter head. His technique of employing a monochrome palette of powder paint and infusing the tradition and the contemporary evoked Oliver Cromwell’s drawings of the head on spike. The 18th century painter used the drawings to symbolize the anarchical behavior of the aristocrats in Europe. In the same manner, Mzili paintings of the head, mocks and satirizes the despotic nature of African regimes and the West’s plot to re-colonized Africa.
Christ at Golgotha a famous painting by Romare Bearden (1945) was adopted by Eria Sane Nsubuga. Sane’s acrylic painting of the same subject matter, was based on his deep-seated Christian faith and an affinity to link Western modern Art with Contemporary African art.
While several artists both on the local and continent art scene continue to be inspired by works of Western modernist artists, how does this affect their artistry? Does it dilute or concretize it? What audience are they appealing to in pursuing this trend? Isn’t this a form of elitism that propagates stereotypes in art appreciation?
The article will critique this artistic trend and give answers to these questions using the voice of prominent art scholars and critics.
Uganda’s art collectors are famously business men, art managers, foreign expatriates and artists themselves. In the past five years, there has been a surge in the buying art because of an increased number of artists on the local art scene, an influx of art galleries and organizations opening around Kampala, heightened exposure to the global art market and last but not least, political stability.
Read More >>