ARTS

Western auction houses are famed for their recording-breaking sales of works of art that pit some of the world’s leading oligarchs keen on collecting art. In 2015 alone, the combined turnover of art auctions was a mind-boggling $986 million, shattering all previous records. Spanish master Pablo Picasso alone grossed a …

Peter Genza’s piece titled `Pumpkin II 2016’ was the big winner at the Second Kampala Art Auction on an otherwise grey Oct.14 night for the 35 local and international artists gathered at the Kampala Serena International Conference Centre, writes Ronny Kahuma. This was Uganda’s second major auction of modern and …

Ian Tukundane is the young artist behind Tian-B Art Studio in Nkumba, the university suburb just outside of Entebbe town, who is not shy to show his love for President Yoweri Museveni, writes Sarah Ngororano. Occupying prime space in Tian-B Art Studio is a large portrait of Museveni titled `My President’. …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Six authors are vying for the Man Booker Prize, the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award to be announced Tuesday, in a shortlist celebrated for taking risks and tackling tough subjects. The winner will be announced at a glitzy event in London after judges …

Gossip is one of the themes of the clay works collections at Dr. Lilian Nabulime’s ongoing show at KfW in Kampala. Nabulime has keenly observed that Ugandans enjoy gossip – the habit of engaging in idle talk by revealing real or made-up information about other people to those who have …

BOOKS: Insights into Uganda – It’s the funniest, frankest, saddest commentary ever written about Uganda I like reading because it packs rest, entertainment, learning and more in one activity. Most times though, I am very clear about why I am reading a particular item. So I was at a loss …

Myko Ouma self-effacingly dismisses it when I tell him he is considered by many people to be one of the best guitarists in the country. “About best guitarist, I don’t know,” he says. In reality, he is a renowned jazz and contemporary world music artiste who plays more than ten …

Kampala Biennale makes bold moves: But how smart was throwing out painting and favouring installations and performance? Under the simmering mid-morning heat of Friday Sept.2, the Uganda Museum was transformed into a scene of wacky spectacle that left many observers utterly lost in translation. A man of Asian origin had …

INDEPENDENCE SPECIAL: By Ngugi wa Thiong’o In 1969 Gacamba, a bicycle repairer in Nyeri, a town about a hundred miles from Nairobi, discovered some kind of engine, a scooter engine, and, using the scrap metal he could find in his backyard, made an aeroplane that he called Kenya One. The plane …

Phiona Mutesi, the Ugandan girl who became a chess sensation at the age of 10 stands out for something else.  She was raised in the slum of Katwe, on the edges of a city, Kampala, but quietly worked her way up. Her journey to fame crested when it was documented …