ARTS

Adonias Ocom’s halos fall on unusual suspects Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Normally, a saint is a holy or pious person. In ordinary speech, it might mean someone known to be good or morally upright. Not so, says Adonias Ocom. The painter sculptor has an ongoing exhibition at Afriart Gallery, …

Contradictions in decolonising art training in Africa Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Formal western art training in the East African region started with Mrs. Margaret Trowell, a Christian missionary, who first lived in Kenya and later Uganda. It is in Uganda during early 1937 that Trowell established her first art …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ugandan German Cultural Society has organised a children’s festival May 6th, one of several educational projects aimed at strengthening and promoting the growth of local art and the bilateral co-operation between the people of Uganda and Germany. The Azulato Children’s Festival takes place for the first …

When girls’ hair was cut to reduce their desirability to men Kampala, Uganda | KATHOMI GATWIRI | When I was growing up in a village in Kenya, we kept our hair short. Sometimes my grandmother cut it with scissors, other times with a razor blade. “It’s manageable when it’s short,” my …

Metaphors of Buganda or images of exploitation? Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | A current exhibition of Geoffrey Mukasa’s works at AKA Gallery in Kamwokya, Kampala relieves his bold and controversial portrayal of the human form, especially the female. A painting by Geoffrey Mukasa would never be complete without these women. …

Serenityscapes as metaphor for self-freedom Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Whenever regular art gallery goers around Kampala are confronted with a striking painting of a beautiful waterscape, associations immediately connect it to Edison Mugalu. This impressionist artist’s name has become so synonymous with the subject that many cannot imagine him …

Mzili, Ndema, Karungi showcase ideology Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In recent times, there has been an urge by artists working on the African continent and the diaspora to evoke a Pan African spirit into their art. In Uganda, two events have evidently explored this concept: `Another RoadMap for Africa …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Female dace production “Orange Moon” comes to Kampala March 24, with an exhibition and show at The Square 3rd Street, Industrial Area. Orange moon is a female dance production inspired by the mystics of a female moon image, were three different female dancers from …

The open expressions of young artists Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | An exhibition of student’s art is bound to be interesting. Occasionally, some students defy their inexperience and produce great art. Usually, however, gaps in art creation and presentation become perfect talking points for gallery visitors and possible dampeners for …

`Mona Lisa’ fetches U.S$ 1.68m at auction Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | A painting of an African princess from Nigeria’s Ife; the spiritual heartland of the Yoruba tribe, recently went under the hammer for more than U.S$ 1.68 million at the Bonhams Auction House in London. The African Mona Lisa …