And its monument gaining international significance Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | About 600 years ago, in 1520AD, three powerful kingdoms thrived in present day central and western Uganda. Located in triangular formation with Buganda, which occupied a long a narrow swath along the shores of Lake Victoria facing Bunyoro-Kitara to …
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Creative and bold students grab rare opportunity Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | How do you get students of art to understand an artist’s work in the real world? For Dr. Emmanuel Mutungi, Head of Department Art and Industrial Design at Kyambogo University in Kampala, the answer is clear; make them …
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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, …
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To judge the moral component of artistic expression,look not at the person who made it but at the work itself COMMENT | IAN BURUMA | Chuck Close is an American artist, famous for painting large portraits. Severely paralyzed, Close is confined to a wheelchair. Former models have accused him of asking …
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Abidjan, Ivory Coast | AFP | A thousand artists from over 50 countries will gather in Ivory Coast on Saturday for a week-long festival of African music, theatre, dance, comedy, slam poetry and storytelling. The 10th edition of the biannual Market for African Performing Arts, known by its French initials as …
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Kampala, Uganda | KEHINDE WILEY | Over the course of the past year, I have had the life-changing honour of painting President Obama’s portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. On Monday, we unveiled it to the world. I’d like to tell you a bit about it. In choosing the composition …
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Pallet wood: Creativity, innovation, recycling, pushing boundaries of art Kampala, Uganda | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | Good art can be made from anything, regardless of the material used. This is evident in a current exhibition titled `Possibilities: Unspecified qualities of a promising nature’. On show are constructions; abstract and functional …
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Accra, Ghana | AFP | Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world’s largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground. “It’s survival and dystopia,” says the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian, surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of …
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Moscow, Russia | AFP | From a musclebound Superman to ice hockey player to jet pilot, Vladimir Putin plays various heroic roles in paintings at a Moscow exhibition called “Superputin” that opened this week as he began his campaign for a fourth Kremlin term. Displayed at an arts centre in a …
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An art exhibition for the blind Kampala, Uganda | Dominic Muwanguzi | Public monuments in Kampala are only accessible to the privileged. This statement gains even more power when you visit the exhibit of artworks that are designed for the blind at the Makerere Art Gallery. The art on show is …
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The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price