“As an artist Geoffrey Mukasa was never afraid to take on new challenges; he taught us to be bold and courageous. He straddled the past and the present and his contribution to the young subject of contemporary art in Uganda has been immense. Mukasa stretched the borders of painting beyond the expected, and deservedly; today he is celebrated as a leading Ugandan painter of the 20th century who was key in raising the profile of art in Uganda. Mukasa’s legacy will continue to reverberate across the country and beyond for many years to come.” Dr. George Kyeyune reviews the recent Mukasa-exhibition at AKA Gallery (Tulifanya).
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Tag: Makerere University
In this article Angelo Kakande shows and argues that as representations of life in Kampala, Kyeyune’s paintings are not portraits of individuals or groups. They are in the first place art. In the second, they are sanitised versions of reality intended to suit middle class and tourist aesthetic tastes. In the third place, they carry the risks of pandering to state propaganda.
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Ceramics is a cultural tradition with millennia of history, and the ceramics show that opened on November 4th at the Makerere University Art gallery was about breaking old barriers and pushing back new ones. Combined with a flair for suspension, it was bolder and even more exciting than the last ceramics exhibition at the same venue.
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“When women’s writing talks about sexuality, its accomplishment is twofold: it works at breaking down the silence around sexual taboos, as well as revealing ways in which women both lack and execute power within sexual and gendered experiences.” Canadian Jessica Veaudry has reviewed the Ugandan novels “The Official Wife”, “Cassandra”, and “Memoirs of a Mother”.
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The first International Umoja Cultural Flying Carpet Show in Uganda was a phenomenal display of talents. New music, new choreography, new acrobats and circus, all pulled off with such admirable coordination and symbiosis that the audience didn’t have reason to yawn. The show was a success because Umoja’s overriding idea of creating together was fulfilled.
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Could the above be the ingredients that can be injected into Kampala’s visual arts scene to spice it up? It cannot be denied that the art industry has grown over the past ten years, but where should it go from here? Startjournal.org caught up with a few renowned artists to discover what they believed were the elements necessary for Kampala’s visual arts scene to be the best it can be.
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In this essay Angelo Kakande F.J. reviews the themes of woman and man as visualised in Lilian Nabulime’s recent exhibition ‘Sculptural figures reflected on daily experiences’. He shows how a creative enterprise, shaped by formal art education, is interwoven into specific historical circumstances. He submits that through her sculptures Nabulime attempts to challenge masculine power.
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Imagine 80 talented young artists from five countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda coming together in one phenomenal two-hour performance at the Ndere centre. Expect drums and traditional East African instruments fusing with contemporary music, creating new soundscapes and rhythms. Look forward to be thrilled by fearless acrobatics, intense dancers, unbelievable contortionists and unstoppable jugglers. There you have the Umoja Festival.
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Contemporary visual artists in Uganda are not unified by pan-Africanism. They are far removed from pan-Africanist philosophers and their symbolism. Instead, artists like Wasswa Donald, Ismael Kateregga and Edison Mugalu seem to lure the viewer into a dreamscape where one is free to explore ideas of what world one is in.
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Margaret Nagawa has had many roles and responsibilities participating in Uganda’s fine art world. She has been a student of fine art, a maker of fine arts, a curator, a teacher, a promoter, and a collector of fine arts. And now again, a student of fine arts! Margaret currently lives in Ethiopia but is working on her PhD from Makerere, writing her dissertation on ‘Visual Arts Dissemination and Cultural Translation in East Africa’.
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In this essay Dr. Angelo Kakande reviews The Early Years: Paintings from the Collection, 1960s-Mid 1980. He places it in Uganda’s history since 1958. In the process he revises some of the positions taken by its organisers; while he questions others. He demonstrates and argues that a contemplation of the wider context of Uganda’s social, economic and political history, which is embodied in some of the works on show, reveals not simply a failed past, but also a pathetic presence and an uncertain political future.
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The brand named Ronex is built upon continuous experimentation. Every waking hour – and sometimes during sleep – his brain is working on extracting the images from within, discovering artwork he didn’t know that he kept inside. He moves in all kind of directions, and hides away his finished work because he fears making copies.
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If you visited any of Uganda’s largest art galleries last year, you would see that the exhibitions were almost exclusively by male artists. Why is that the case? Startjournal has interviewed Lilian Nabulime, Venny Nakazibwe, Sarah Nakisanze and Jana Twinomugisha in search of reasons.
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Rose Kirumira is one of Uganda’s most known artists abroad. Her willingness to live and work abroad has been defining her artistic career. The hunger for exposure to other cultures and inspiring visual artists has brought her to Zambia, Botswana, California, the Netherlands, Canada, China, Sweden and Denmark. Her message to fellow artists is unambiguous. ”Go out, meet other artists, talk to them and discuss art. Think of yourself as explorers. You will love moving to new places and exploring different cultures.”
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Uganda’s visual art scene, like the country’s history, has been through turbulent times. In this feature Harry Johnstone explores the evolution of visual art in Uganda. Harry examines Uganda’s historical differences with other regions in Africa, visual artists’ reaction to post-independence political struggle as well as the work of several contemporary artists.
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A cow. A boda boda. A woman carrying her child in a sling. A man pushing a wooden wheelbarrow. George Kyeyune sees extraordinary stories in ordinary events.
”If I can record these moments in time as permanent images. To engage my audience. To show you our history. To provoke you and challenge you about who you are. Then I have accomplished my mission as an artist”.
George Kyeyune reflects on how the medium affects the message in contemporary Ugandan art. “Nabulime makes casts of male and female genitals in transparent soap into which she embeds dark seeds to look like infections. We all know that soap
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