25 Years of AKA gallery

Nurturing young talent and celebrating the established artists over the years.

COMMENT | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Galleries come and go, but AKA Gallery has stood the test of time. Established in 1999 as Tulifanya Art Gallery by the gallant and scrupulous Maria Fischer, the gallery has over the years been a major player on the Ugandan modern and contemporary art scene, contributing to a sizeable fraction of the established and mid-career Ugandan artists in practice today. In fact, several of these artists, including Henry Mzili Mujuga, Ronald “Ronex” Ahimbismbwe, David Kigozi, Ismael Kateregga and Samson “Xenson” Ssenkaaba launched their professional art careers at the art space.

The gallery also prides itself in representing some of the luminary Ugandan artists of that era like Fabian Mpagi, Maria Naita and Geoffrey Mukasa. These names have been central in raising the profile of the gallery both in Uganda and in the region throughout the years, with a host of Kenyan and Sudanese artists like Ahmed Abusharia and El Tayeb previously holding a series of solo shows here.

Today, the gallery continues to echo this stardom through the showcase of monthly shows by different artists at different levels of their careers. The revival of the Young Discoveries Exhibition, a creative platform with the objective to discover young artists and promote their work to wider audiences, has been pivotal in providing opportunities to young art graduates to exhibit their work in a professionally managed art gallery, while linking them to potential clients.

Equally, this forum offers an opportunity to the gallery to discover new talent, nurture and promote it to different audiences. The group show Artistic Vision of Uganda 2025 is a testament to this form of engagement, where five artists from the Makerere Art School showcased their work at the gallery and later participated in a three-day workshop. The workshop objective was to expose the young artists to the dynamics of contemporary art, for example the relationship between the artist, gallery and audience; how an artist positions themselves in the art market; and how an artist can work with artificial intelligence in their art.

The aspect of encouraging and preserving the creative freedom of artists has been one of the unique strengths of the gallery since its inception. A critical observation of works by Geoffrey Mukasa, Maria Naita and Fred Kato Mutebi, who were regular fixtures at the gallery’s monthly shows in its early days, reveals a sense of creative freedom in the artists’ works that consequently led to their production of exceptional art that has hitherto endeared them to regional and international audiences.

Geoffrey Mukasa’s impressive performance at the East African art auction is undeniably a result of his unique visual language on canvas that feeds into his Buganda cultural heritage and influences from modern Oriental and European art traditions that were exposed to him through formal art learning. The gallery has a large collection of the artist’s work in its holdings; it occasionally exhibits it as a form of reliving the memory of one of the most distinguished Ugandan artists of all time.

As the global spotlight shifts to the East African contemporary art landscape, AKA Gallery continues to position itself within this thriving art market in the region by seeking collaborations and exchanges with different artists, galleries, critics and collectors in and around the region. This form of engagement is critical in elevating the visibility of the gallery while leveraging the available opportunities through its series of yearly activities, including monthly shows, workshops, studio visits and artists’ walkabouts. These events do not only offer strategic marketing for the gallery to diverse audiences but also broaden the function of the gallery beyond art showcase to being a space for knowledge sharing and cultural heritage conservation.

While galleries in Uganda have come and gone, AKA Gallery’s longevity is a reflection of its deep and sincere commitment to be part of the growing art industry in Uganda through nurturing young talent and celebrating the already established artists. This impressive portfolio gives it clout as one of the most sought-after galleries in the region, and this definitely is its gate pass to the next 25 years.