How the growing art scene in Uganda mirrors increased global interest in African art
- African artists’ work is selling internationally and getting much needed exposure at home as galleries open up to meet the growing interest from collectors
- In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, where sculptor Lilian Nabulime has just held a solo show at a gallery, efforts to grow art collecting by locals are under way
Lilian Nabulime hasn’t forgotten the time in the 1990s when the Ugandan capital had just one commercial art gallery, a small space that emerging artists struggled to get into.
Now there are at least six in Kampala, including one whose curator recently exhibited the sculptor’s work.
Nabulime’s show, which has attracted audiences for its conspiratorial take on the peculiarities of urban “gossip”, might never have happened if she hadn’t approached Xenson Art Space and asked for the opportunity to exhibit her work. Her work includes terracotta works topped with the deformed facial features of gossip bearers.
“Nobody ever comes to me and says, ‘Oh, can we show your work?’” she says, sitting among her sculptures. “For me, I just decided and said, ‘Let me go and exhibit my work.’ I asked for the exhibition, and they gave me the space.”
Her recent solo show exemplifies an expanding artistic landscape that allows more room for local artists who once struggled for space.
