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Learning A New Language: Lillian Nabulime
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...
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Pamela Kertland Wright: Collector, writer and owner of Emin Pasha hotel
A Q&A with Pamela Kertland Wright, collector, writer and owner of Emin Pasha hotel as well as several other safari lodges in Uganda. “I think there is incredible talent here in Uganda. But...
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The Perceptive Observer: An interview with George Kyeyune
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...
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Evolution of visual arts in Uganda
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, contemporary art remains particularly influenced by the agglomeration of historical and political forces that have shaped the country in question. In Europe art patronage has...
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Different but One 15: The Makerere Masters
This year the joint faculty exhibition at Makerere University’s Fine Arts Department ”Different but One” celebrates its 15th year. Startjournal.org would like to honour 15 of the inspiring faculty...
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A woman with many artistic hats: An interview with Margaret Nagawa
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...
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Taking art back to communities: The Mabarti Street Art project
In Uganda we are not short on visual culture. We are surrounded by visual impressions of all kinds – adverts in different sizes and forms, persuading us to buy products we may never even use in our...
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Sculptural figures reflected on daily experiences? Nabulime confronts the...
In this essay I review the themes of woman and man as visualised in Lilian Nabulime’s ‘Sculptural figures reflected on daily experiences’. I show how a creative enterprise, shaped by formal art...
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Is the Ugandan art scene on the right path?
Kampala’s arts scene is on the move. There is no longer such a thing as “the only gallery in town”. These new white cubes appears in many shapes and frequencies, and provides great, new arenas for...
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Patronage, finesse and passion
Could the above be the ingredients that can be injected into Kampala’s visual arts scene to spice it up? Over the past ten years, while the growth of the visual art industry has been negligible, it...
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Kyeyune’s The Kampala I Will Always Come Back To: Sanitised Economic...
On 14 October 2011 George William Kyeyune mounted his ‘The Kampala I Will Always Come Back To’. The exhibition showcased the artist’s recent paintings representing the hard sociopolitical struggles...
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Geoffrey Mukasa: The enduring painter
Retrospective exhibitions are not very often held in Uganda. There are two main reasons; firstly, most artists sell to the expatriate community and tourists who pack their treasures and return home....
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Edison Mugalu’s art: The serendipity of success
I have been following the trends in Uganda’s visual environment in the last decade, with keen interest and I have noted something rather distinct. While the events in art that made headlines in the...
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Five monuments in Kampala from the first 50 years of independence
Now that Uganda has just celebrated 50 years of independence, it will take the nation more 50 years to celebrate a century. Although most of us might be dead by that time, one thing is for certain,...
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Nudity? It is Artistic Expression and Free Speech (part I)
On 15th April 2012 Fas Fas hosted the Nudes 2012 organized by Ronex Ahimbisibwe. In our interview Ahimbisibwe averred that the objective of the show was to demystify the human body; in an interview...
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Ugandan Art: From Galleries to Green Lawns and Red Roads
Do you want to learn about the development of the Ugandan Visual Arts scene? In this article, Margaret Nagawa starts with the impact of Margaret Trowell and Cecil Todd, and gives a brief overview of...
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Nudity? It is Artistic Expression and Free Speech (part II)
On 4 September the Nommo Gallery launched Nude 2000 amid high expectations, pomp and ceremony[i]. Its subject matter was not like an exhibition that was held at the newly opened Cassava Republic[ii] in...
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When group exhibitions fall short on competence and innovation
Many artists will gush at the opportunity of participating in a group exhibition, especially when it is held in a non-traditional art space like a hotel or an open space. The excitement comes from the...
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Surviving Ugandan Art
Henry Mzili Mujunga I first met Ssalongo Joseph Matovu at Nommo gallery in 2000 at a time when Gregory Robison, a British printmaker, was activating print making in Uganda. Joseph Matovu (JM as he...
View ArticleSidney Kasfir – a selfless researcher and educationist
By George Kyeyune In 2013, I won a coveted Fulbright Fellowship to spend the winter semester at Emory University, USA. I shared my excitement with my PhD supervisor, (1999-2003) Prof. John Picton. I...
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