Henry MZILI MUJUNGA: HEAD

Afriart Gallery presents 'HEAD' an exhibition of twenty paintings by Ugandan writer, painter, printmaker and conceptual artist Henry Mzili Mujunga.

"Working on head was fun, agonizing, intoxicating (literally), irritating, confusing, hilarious and rewarding. For a long while, I was fiddling with loss of colour while focusing on textural qualities of painted and human surfaces. The process of curving a head out of powder paints to give it a presence worthy of any wall hanging was a mixture of stencils, dubs and scratches, a very conscious process of avoiding obvious brush strokes (brush strokes are cliché and denote the old order). Occasional shots of liquor provided the much needed courage and steadiness of mind for the investigative, yet frivolous, process that was so much desired to give the heads a spiritual- sexual presence. The guitar also helped a lot to lighten the mood; emphasizing the pastel palette.

The subject matter was a quest to patch up some heads that were threatened with disintegration caused by excessive hedonism and material wantonness.

The dickheads, for instance, clamored for blind penetration, forever torn between holes. The scatter-heads, undecided on legislation, fomented antiquated bills to deal with present challenges. In a bid to entrench one’s folly, blind obduracy often succeeds in driving reason away; Who wants to reason with dickheads anyway? "

Henry Mzili Mujunga (2014)

Mzili will be unveiling his new work at the Afriart Gallery (Kamwokya), on Friday, 04th April 2014, 6pm Mzili born Henry Brian Mujunga on the 20th December 1971 is a Ugandan born writer, painter, printmaker and conceptual artist. He has been exploring intuitive ways of reviving African art through an art movement called indigenous- expressionism. He strongly advocates the importance of networking amongst African artists in order to share their cultural content and create an interesting dialogue with the art being produced globally. Mzili is a founding member of the East African Art Group Index Mashariki, which seeks to re-establish relevancy for art in the local community by propagating indigenous-expressionism. He is also a member of the Pan African Circle of Artists (PACA) that links artists working for the integration of Africa through art. He is cofounder of Kampala Arts Trust. Mzili is a winner of the Royal Overseas League (ROSL) Art Scholarship 2003 and has exhibited extensively in galleries in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, UK, Germany, France and The Netherlands. http://afriartgallery.org