A national art treasure goes unnoticed Uganda’s commemoration of 50 years of Independence saw the grandest celebration of national pride. The media hype, national gatherings in all districts, well-crafted speeches by government officials, branding the city with that famous Uganda@50 logo, even a special currency designed for the event. The …
Read More »Framing visions through Affirmative Art
It turns out that many people are clueless about what they really want to be; that what they are has been conditioned by external influences. These could be society, peers, friends, family pressures, and more. Norwegian artist Eirik Jarl Trondsen once belonged to this lot. He worked for years with …
Read More »Art history returns to Nommo gallery
Visual artists from the East African region in historic exhibit On the 14th of this month, Nommo Gallery in Nakasero awoke from its slumber as visual artists from the East African region gathered in a historic painting exhibition under the rubric of cultural diversity. This show was a translation of …
Read More »Who will buy Amanda’s million dollar painting?
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 …
Read More »Kampala gossipers put in their place
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 …
Read More »Kampala Biennale makes bold moves
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 …
Read More »Big dreams for Bayimba
Can the international festival push more creativity into Kampala? For cities, especially those aspiring for global recognition, to thrive in the 21st century; they need a culture of creativity – the capacity to think afresh. The creative city is a city that has a brand and reflects a personality. This attitude …
Read More »Muwanga’s penchant for naivety
Some children as young as kindergarten-age may have an inkling of what they wish to become when they grow up, or at least they might think they do. A lot of what they say they want to become is nothing more than simplistic wishful thinking that is perhaps informed by …
Read More »Roshani’s Mehndi flair
Roshani Madina Siliban is a Uganda-Indian artist who has been actively practicing painting since 2014 when she graduated with a diploma in Industrial Art and Design from the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Kampala Uganda, writes Nathan Kiwere. Her specialty is painting and textile design. She is likely more …
Read More »Lukwago’s Fek Fek art
When Saad Lukwago started teaching art in high school nearly a decade ago, his students expected him to exude the highest standards of artistic practice in his own works, the same way he instructed them to do and this standard, according to them, was art rendered in photographic precision. However, …
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