Kaspa’s tamed emotions

Artist uses line and colour to tame his emotions on canvas but also exploits the same technique to connect with his audience

ART | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | An encounter with Paul Kasambeko Kaspa‘s paintings showing in a solo exhibition titled Tamed Emotions reveals his growth on canvas. The artist previously known for his figurative paintings with birds and natural landscapes as a representation of his everyday living through art, has now ventured into abstract- expressionism. He now mainly uses line and colour as a metaphor to express himself to his audience. The use of colour and line is as diverse on canvas as the different themes he navigates from time to time. Largely, the themes he tackles are introspective in nature; an approach that exposes how intimately he’s connected to each of the eighteen paintings on showcase. Equally it is through this methodology of working that he’s able to both tame his emotions on canvas while at the same time he connects with his audience.

The intentional approach to his work inspires his working with collages and thick textures to fulfill his innate desire to express himself freely as an artist but also instigate diverse conversations among the viewers. Through working with wax fabrics popularly known as Kitengi, he expresses his African identity and strong passion for his “Africanness”. Similarly, this fabric collage stimulates a sense of familiarity between audience and artwork since the material is commonly used as clothing materials among many Ugandans on a day-to-day basis. The thick textures on canvas delicately explore the urgency of his emotions giving the viewers a sneak peek of his creative processes.

“When I am working, I don’t sketch. I only use paint and brush to capture my emotions and feelings on canvas,” Kaspa says. Nonetheless, he reveals that the reason why his paintings are dominated with so many lines is because they enable him to control his emotions on canvas. “Working with lines enables me to set boundaries as I am working,” he notes.

Conversely, the artist seems to find a lot of freedom working with a different palette from time to time. This diversity in colour is a reflection of the different emotions and feelings he’s going through at a particular point in time and wishes to share this with his audience.

In The Life After 2024, the artist ponders on the subject of death and what happens thereafter. To capture his thoughts and feeling about this sombre topic, the artist uses a grey and black palette to express the mood of such thoughts in our lives where we are confronted with the unknown. On the other hand, while tackling lighter or cheerful topics like hope, friendship and freedom, his palette is energetic and vibrant. This vibrancy on canvas is visible in painting like Journey to Freedom 2018 and No Place like Home 2024. The predominantly harmonious display of colour on his canvas suggest his love for nature and adventure but also a deliberate technique to invite different types of audiences into his work.

With this solo exhibition, Kaspa firmly expresses his trajectory of growth as an artist of many years of experience. He has been working as an artist for almost 20 years and through working with different styles and techniques coupled with showing his art in different spaces, he has acquired such indomitable experience and confidence. Therefore, the exhibition transcends the expression of emotions and feelings on canvas and attaching deep meaning to such form of expression. It equally says much about the importance of taking off time to re-discover yourself as an artist through research and experimentation in order to remain relevant in the now fast and competitive local and regional art scene.

*****

The exhibition opened on 15th June and will run until 14th July 2024 at Xenson Art space located on Kennethdale lane, Old Kira Road.