37d Gallery announces Makala, Evans show

By Andrew Mulenga

The stART Foundation and 37d Gallery in Lusaka presents a sizeable body of new work by a Lusaka-based duo David Makala and Natasha Evans in what is expected to be a stimulating exhibition entitled Metamorphosis.

'Cupid' Acrylic & mixed media on canvas, 154 x 129cm
by David Makala (Courtesy: 37d Gallery)

Set for 17:30, Friday 26 September at 37d Middle Way in Kabulonga, the show is expected to start with all the frills that have become a staple at the gallery’s openings such as free-flowing champagne, delightful Yorkshire pudding Hors d'oeuvre and dazzling pageant-grade ushers who will not only pour your glass of wine but gladly place your reservation on a painting or two.

But no need for excitement if you have not yet got an invitation, it means you did not make the select list of prospective buyers. The gallery maintains a no-time-wasters stance perhaps on the grounds that it is on private property, or to put it accurately, in someone’s home.

Nevertheless, according to the gallery, the works on display “will be based largely on the conceptual aspects of the individual themes they (Makala and Evans) have been working on, realised in an installation style of works.”

There is no telling how the installation by both artists will play with scale and spatial perspective in the gallery but of course this will be an aspect of the show that should be expected to provide a theatrical angle to the event.

According to the exhibition statement Makala’s focus “will be a conceptual one, exploring the theme of Metamorphosis using elements of light and texture.”

'Echoes' by Natasha Evans. Acrylic
& mixed media on paper (Courtesy: 37d Gallery)

“ His surfaces combine acrylic paint applied in a ‘staining’ technique, often enhanced with embedded objects, and mounted on a textured surface,” continues the statement in part “It is his personal metaphor for one’s ever changing state of being;  with surfaces and patterns, design and the aesthetic which are all constantly evolving into something new, different and unknown.”

Perhaps true to the term metamorphosis itself, Makala has changed; he has come of age as an artist. His recent works clearly reflect an energetic aura of maturity and focus, you can tell that he has been working hard and putting in his best, one thing that is now clear is that he has made up his mind to be nothing but a professional. His tenor too has clearly developed a world class contemporary edge to it; no doubt he has been doing a great deal of research.

The 30-year-old has been at it for just over 7 years now, shaped through several of Mulenga Chafilwa’s youth oriented ‘August Studio’ workshops at the Visual Arts Council (VAC), he has been a regular at the Art Academy Without Walls, passed through art patron Alexis Phiri’s Kachere Studios, before breaking away with other radical young artists such as the Phiri Brothers Tom and Bisa to co-found ‘Roots of Expression’ with Paris-Based Zimbabwean sculptor Agnew Masango. Between 2008 and 2010 he studied under Evelyn Hone College lecturer and seasoned artist Alex Nkazi attending a two and a half year apprenticeship programme and has also been mentored by painter Stary Mwaba who is currently attending a 2014- 2015 residency at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Germany.

'Hunting' Acrylic & mixed media on canvas, 154 x 129cm
by David Makala (Courtesy:37d Gallery)

While Evans too explores ‘light and dark’ as a central concept the exhibition statement declares “She returns to discussions of balance and how proportions of ‘dark and light’, of hope and failings of human thought, can be identified in ourselves.”

“Her work is very much about process and so her images evolve by being built up, taken apart, erased and painted over.  The use of the colour gold is suggestive as its symbolic quality lends itself to the idea of value, luminosity and contrast,” it reads further.

According to her personal statement she “tries to maintain a balance between strength in aesthetic appeal and concept.  She likes to combine drawing and painting skill with less used processes and techniques to create interesting texture and to add interest and question about creative processes and the different ways of making pictures.” 

'Nostalgia' by Natasha Evans. Light installation

Most recently Evans has started to explore the concepts of boundaries and borders and the crossing over these and has used compositions of imagery, line, and paint as metaphor to depict the movement ideas or stories.”

Evans also dabbles in functional art and she enjoys creating one off lamp shades. Her hand does have a strong commanded of tint and shade usage and her heightened level of conceptualism may be a clear reflection of her European training having studied at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, England where she was awarded a BA with Honours First Class Degree in Illustration in 2005.

Between 2009 and 2013 she has exhibited in the Musikili Arts Exhibition, the Art & Design Show Lusaka, AISL Art Gallery, and the Art for Wildlife Exhibition as well as a 2010 solo at the Red Dot Gallery, Lusaka.  In 2009 she won an International Street Paper Award, in Norway for Best Cover, Big Issue Zambia and in 2011 she was awarded the David Shepherd 1st Prize for Mixed Media Painting.

Although she was born in Zimbabwe, both her parents were born in Zambia she too has lived here since she was 8 years old, besides the art keeping her busy, she is said to be happily raising four small children.

Both Makala and Evans were featured in 37d’s emerging artists’ exhibition Movement-Momentum alongside Mulenga Mulenga, Tom Phiri, Rabson Phiri and Emmanuel Chibaye in June 2013.  

'Usual Spot' Acrylic & mixed media on canvas, 154 x 129cm

 

by David Makala

Renaissance underway foretells versatile Zambian artist

By Andrew Mulenga

When Mathews Mwepu Kabungwe graduated from the Evelyn Hone College with an art teachers Diploma in 1994, his restless creative spirit could not settle for the life of a secondary school educator. Even six months of successful teacher practice at Kabulonga Girls Secondary School in Lusaka could not contain him. 

His vision was clearly beyond the classroom, it swung towards the uncertain but boundless opportunities of self-employment.

Stage design for Mulenga Kapwepwe's Rufino's Wife at

the Lusaka Playhouse by Mwepu Kabungwe

Twenty years down the line, Mwepu, as he is fondly called has never gone back to formal teaching, let alone so-called formal employment. He continues to live the true life of a freelancer, that of a daily struggle doing whatever job his creative hands can find, and in this regard he is something of a Renaissance man.

“My artistic expression is in a wide range of media. I make a living as a graphic designer; depending on the job I design stuff using my computer. I use that for posters, CD covers, billboards and so on,” he says “But when I’m doing banners I enjoy painting them by hand, that goes for signwriting too”.

Since the 1990s he has decorated pavilions for the likes of The British Council, Environment Council of Zambia (ECZ), National AIDS Council and Multi Choice (Z) in the Lusaka Show grounds, he has also designed stage backdrops for the Lusaka Playhouse, NATAAZ   Festivals and the Ngoma Awards.

One cannot easily put a finger on Mwepu’s artistic style, as a graphic designer, painter or sculptor but he does identify with a few Zambian artists whom he describes as inspirational.

“I haven’t really exhibited much on the gallery scene but I always visit shows just to keep abreast. I have always been inspired by artists like the late Godfrey Seti and Martin Phiri the Paul Kadimbas, Bauchi and Nezias Nyirenda but in between, there has been a good number of artists whom I myself have inspired, who are actually doing better than me and that’s a good thing,” he says explaining that he usually paints to vent inner pressures that he lets out in the form of landscapes, sunsets and portraiture.

CD design by Mwepu Kabungwe

“Speaking for my fellow graphic designers, the situation here in Zambia is quite pathetic. There are no institutions seriously teaching computer aided art and design which is very important in advertising and animation. You can imagine for simple software like Corel Draw, you have to travel to South Africa,” he says.

He claims that because of this, a good number of talented Zambians have become leading graphic designers in South Africa; many went there for training but ended up whisked into the – normally well-paying -- bustling design industry by companies that are always looking for talent.

“I don’t have to tell you why there has always been a brain drain in my field. It is because we are not appreciated locally, that is why when we get the opportunity to go, we don’t come back. But let me tell you even those artists who are busy working in the underground like myself, they are busy making their money without support,” he explains “The thing is, we cannot just sit down and say government is  not supporting artists. Are my children going to eat complaints? That is why we have to go out there and look for these contracts even the small ones like designing business cards”.

National Association of Media Arts Award

trophies by Mwepu Kabungwe

He warns that the continued neglect of Zambia’s creative sector will result in what he describes as an artistic explosion that will shock the world.

“Let me tell you, the world is not yet ready for what Zambia has to offer artistically, they have never seen talent like what we have here. Zambian art has been moving, artists in their own way have been moving but if we get the support from above, fine, and if we don’t, still we are in an artistic transition,” proclaims the artist, a devoted Rastafarian and well known alcohol abuse activist among the youth of Kaunda Square Stage 2 in Lusaka, where heavy drinking has become a key pass time along a marketplace corridor called “Third World”, popular for a reasonably priced whiskey or vodka and Tangy fizzy drink combo called “Ka Set” or simply “Set” that is being consumed at the endemic proportions of its predecessor the Tujili jili satchets.

“Anyway, there is about to be a Zambian art renaissance (revival) its about to explode, there is much more to be seen, the world is not yet ready for Zambia there is going to be a serious rebirth that the world is yet to see,” he reiterates.

The 44-year-old speaks very passionately about the unemployed youth of his community and tries to encourage them to use whatever creative skills they have to get by as he has been doing for a sometime.

Mwepu hard at work in his backyard

“The youth have to be inspired. I work hard so I can leave a foot print for them to see that a man passed here. Even me I’ve been inspired by people like my late lecturer Martin Phiri, Flinto Chandia and even Agnes Yombwe,” he explains, visibly enthusiastic “There are many other gurus but for me Flinto is the man, that’s the level we have to get to, his geometry is unbelievable just look at that Elephant at Meridian (Comesa Building), also look at work like the Mposa Mabwe ( a statue by Francis Chinyimba) which was done years ago in Kitwe it still looks good today, so even artists of the present should learn to do work that will stand the test of time”

Although a proud Kaonde-Ila raised by a Nsenga mother, the well-read and travelled (around Zambia) independent researcher also emphasises the importance of legacy by dabbling in a fragment of Bemba cosmology.

“They say Luchelenganga a medicine man to the Luba Lunda kings stepped on a rock and you can still see his footprint up to this very day, this is what the artists are supposed to do, to leave a solid footprint for eternity,” he says in reference to a mystical, Gandalf-like figure whom according to Bemba legend guided the Luba-Lunda peoples during their migration from Kola in present day Angola, through what is the Democratic Republic of Congo. A generally held belief is that his foot prints are set in solid rock somewhere North of Kasama. He is also briefly mentioned in the distinguished scholar Hugo Hinfelaar’s 1994 book, Bemba-speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892 1992) as a personification of creation, Lucheyele Lesa (Light envoy of god) who is expected to return one day.  

Nevertheless, Mwepu also brags of being able to read Lozi and Tonga among other languages, he says he is self-taught and encourages youth to return to their indigenous values and study local languages, folklore and proverbs. 

The endlessly busy artist has enjoyed banner commissions from the Alliance Françoise, Women For Change,  Road Transport and Safety Agency (RSTA), Yezi Arts , Sakala Brothers, Danny Kaya and Sister D. As an illustrator and poster designer he has done work for Africare, Project Concern International) and Afya Mzuri. He works from his home in Kaunda Square Stage 2, behind Simusokwe Pub and Grill off Hybrid Road in Lusaka.

Chali ready for September 11 solo

By Andrew Mulenga

One of Zambia’s most promising painters, Aubrey Chali has announced that he is ready for his first solo exhibition entitled Me and My Art which is scheduled for 11 September at the Henry Tayali Gallery in the Lusaka Show grounds.

The show comes barely two months after his bungled trip to attend a professional artists' convention in Canada, the International Symposium of Painting and Sculpture in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

Drummer, 2014, (acrylic on canvas) by Aubrey Chali

The self-taught, Mansa-based artist could not realise his invitation due to pointlessly complex visa procedures with the Canadian embassy in South Africa which also administers Zambian applications. According to the artist, some thick-skinned embassy staff (South African nationals), were quite keen on denying him the VISA despite having paid $100 as well as providing all the necessary documentation.

Still, he has been invited for the 2015 edition and will be receiving assistance from the symposium organizers well in advance of the participation date so all should go well. The slight career hurdle has not tainted the artist whose mood is still as bright as his colour palette. As he comes to Lusaka he will be showcasing 20 recent works that demonstrate his unique technique of line and pointillism that has now become his signature.

“I thought of holding a solo as important in the sense that, I have to move to the next level of thinking and advancement in my art career and of course to upgrade my CV. As you know, as a freelance fine artist, it’s up to me to promote my art or else I will remain in the same seat immovable until death do us part?” says the artist who revealed the struggles of operating from Luapula Province in his last interview with this paper when he revealed and strictly emphasised that the only buyers in Mansa are from the American Peace Corps. 

According to the artist he will only be able to bring his show to Lusaka because he managed to sell two paintings to a European buyer who contacted him through the author. The buyer spotted Chali’s work through Andrew Mulenga’s Hole In The Wall online.

“I have faced challenges in various ways, but I have come to know how to handle them artistically, reason being that, I believe (in God). I learn a lot from challenges, they sharpen my thinking capacity. James 1:1 says count it all joy when you fall into various challenges,” he says in reference to his spiritual devotion. 

Water source, 2014, (acrylic on canvas) by Aubrey Chali

He is however grateful for the support he is receiving from the Visual Arts Council (VAC) that is assisting with the printing and distribution of the invitation cards among other logistics.

“I feel the Henry Tayali Gallery is the best place for my first solo exhibition at the moment, due to the fact that, I have to begin at home then in the days to come that’s when I will be thinking of holding my shows anywhere else,” he says, alluding that the VAC headquarters was the transcendent home of the visual arts in Zambia and therefore the ideal place to have his first solo.

“My art is an endless research, discovering and developing what I call Cha-li-nism or rather the Chalinism style of painting because, my mind and my spirit are always 24/7/365 on a visual journey of exploration hence, leading me on into the phenomenon where the genesis of my endless self-discovery germinates my roots in art,” he explains, attaching a theoretical depth to his paintings.

“I enjoy the status my art confers and still I approach painting as the job that I do, every day, while exploring new ideas by putting pigment on canvas and I feel and believe that, it is important to break new ground on the Zambian art scene by refining my artistic style of painting to its pinnacle”.

Chali will be present at the opening of his exhibition where he is expected to share a few words concerning his philosophy as well as present a short written statement.

While viewers should not expect too much of a shift in terms of his usual subject matter, scenes from pastoral life, inspired by the peri-urban setting in Mansa, they will still get a chance to marvel at the unique technique this artist has come up with, a style that continues to charm his growing number of admirers and collectors. The exhibition will run until 3 October.