GALERIE MODERNE SILKEBORG
Galerie Moderne Silkeborg 2021
COLLIN SEK AJUGO
Collin Sekajugo
Galerie Moderne Silkeborg 2021
Collin Sekajugo was born in 1980 in Uganda, one of the many African countries marked by unrest, war, rebellion, and their tragic consequences—as we know all too well at a distance, here in the safety of our Silkeborg and Denmark. Collin is a painter-witness from the part of the world that has now, with the advent of globalization, become part of our world as well, and which comes today to the Galerie Moderne Silkeborg. We welcome Collin, and look forward to showing visitors a different tradition and distinct approach, by means of form, materials, and expression, to the culture of which Collin is a product. Collin’s world is fragmentary: momentary impressions that come to him suddenly; scars on his retina. A gripping image, with butterflies: these not only fly out of the mouth of his portrait, but also serve as an winged message of help and hope. Welcome, Collin Sekajugo, to our Gallery—and welcome to you. Henrik Omme
1 Big butterflies, 2021 Mixed media 90 x 90 cm
COL L I N SE KA JU G O
Collin Sekajugo born in Masaka, Uganda approaches his pictures from a vantage point of a deep sense of empathy for the human condition but he also applies a rigorous conceptual framework from where his pictures are conjured. Sekajugo incorporates an astute sense of immediacy when extracting the fantastical from the mundane and his observation skills tell of the humanity that his subjects offer through insights and exposure into their most vulnerable and absurd and irreverent moments. Quoting curator Shaheen Merali and his forthcoming survey text on the artist – “Collin Sekajugo paintings are pure theatre, a change of light, sometimes shadows, always overpainted of figures that have awkwardly arrived in the metropole. Similarly, Sekajugo’s concerns are of truth over fact and conspiracies; His paintings examine a particular cultural strand of a contemporaneity obsessed with itself and they are a response to his archive of stock images that has proliferated from newspapers, magazines, digital media, flyers, posters, locally sourced and recycled materials, such as denim fabrics, wastepaper and polypropylene bags.” Colin Sekajugo reveals the problematic of our global obsession of self-reference in an act of identity swap, racial transformation, real or imagined bodies. The mundane becomes fantastical and the everyday becomes unreal. His subjects suggest that they have gone through a change but it is either so discreet that we overlook the subtleties of that transformation, or we are apprehensive to really learn what that change may mean to us. It is inside the feeling of unease that is delivered through the agency of beauty where Sekajugo finds the accidental poetry that forms the basis for his works. Having led an itinerant lifestyle – living at different times in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and the USA, and travelling often for his practice – the question of personal identity and how it shifts and evolves relative to the individual’s surroundings is one to which he has returned often. The faceless or masked figures that populate Sekajugo’s works are sometimes draped in
shawls protectively over his own body while multiple silhouettes hover around him, coming in and out of view. Here the artist considers individual encounters with new cultures and the adaptation that such encounters make necessary. Contextually, says Sekajugo “the work speaks of what we always leave behind in our quest for new lifestyles and new adventures.” Sekajugo engages in an ever-changing and shape shifting story which is born from a rapidly changing state of cultural production globally. Unlike some artists who get caught up in empathetic views on people of colour in the West, the black experience through the Western lens speaks historically of abduction, subjugation, servitude and a shared trauma. Whilst the Eastern African experience tells a vastly different story, which is that of tribal power struggles, the egomaniacal folly of kings – old and new, the quiet spirits that still permeate and inhabit people’s daily lives, to that of overcoming more recent historical events that diluted the colonial narrative to be replaced by youth, innovation, reinvigoration and a hope for change. Currently based in Kampala, Sekajugo works predominantly with painting, drawing and mixed media. Adopting the language of consumerism, often incorporating everyday objects into his work, Sekajugo comments on the place of material objects and our interaction with our shifting environments in the formation of identities. He has exhibited and participated in numerous residencies in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC and in private collections across the world. Sekajugo received the Ugandan Human Rights Award of 2019 for his community development work in the arts. He is the founder of the pioneering Ivuka Arts Space in Kigali, Rwanda and the Weaverbird Art Centre in Masaka, Uganda. This is the artists’ first solo exhibition in Denmark. Text edited by Nathalie Melikian Artistic Director Stjarna Brussels
2 Peice of peace, 2021 Mixed media 90 x 90 cm
3 Good seed sower, 2021 Mixed media 150 x 120 cm
4 No title, 2018 Mixed media 60 x 60 cm
5 Carcoal mask, 2021 Mixed media 90 x 90 cm
6 It cant fit, 2021 Mixed media 150 x 120 cm
7 Resistence, 2021 Mixed media 170 x 130 cm
8 Frontliner, 2021 Mixed media 168 x 130 cm
9 No title, 2018 Mixed media 60 x 60 cm
10 Get lost, 2021 Mixed media 150 x 120 cm
11 Apple tea, 2021 Mixed media 90 x 90 cm
12 No title, 2018 Mixed media 60 x 60 cm
13 No title, 2018 Mixed media 60 x 60 cm
CO L L I N S E KAJUGO, BORN 1980, MASAKA, UGANDA
Achievements 2010 Founder, RWAndA-n-Art Magazine 2010 Founder, Camp Ndegeya retreat center (Weaver Bird Arts Community) in Masaka, Uganda 2007 Founder, Ivuka Arts Center, Kigali, Rwanda
Awards 2019 Human Rights Award, Chapter Four, Uganda 2016 Unframed 2016, Oregon, United States of America 2015 Africa Centre AIR Laureate – Cape Town, South Africa
Permanent Collections Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C, United States of America Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
Residencies 2021 Stjarna SRL, Brussels, Belgium (upcoming) 2016 JWAR, Barcelona, Spain 2015 SpreadArt, Detroit, USA 2012 Kuona Trust Art Center, Nairobi, Kenya 2012 The Loft, 51 Surrey Row, Unit 2 La Gare London SE1 0BZ 2010 Arte Studio Ginestrelle, Assisi, Italy
Solo Exhibitions 2021 Collin Sekajugo, Galerie Moderne Silkeborg, Denmark 2020 This is Uganda, SulgerBuel Gallery, London, The UK 2018 What is Beautiful, Afriart Gallery, Kampala, Uganda 2016 The Fist of Stella Nyanzi, Weaver Bird Art Space, Kampala, Uganda 2013 Baba mweusi, Ivuka Arts Center, Kigali, Rwanda 2012 Sekaplastic, Kuona Trust Art Center, Nairobi, Kenya 2010 As Rwanda turns, Goethe Institut, Kigali, Rwanda 2009 Rwandan jazz, Closer Look, Chicago, United States of America
Select Group Exhibitions 2021 Praxis of Change, Firetti Contemporary, Dubai, 2021 UAE 1‑54 Art Fair, London, UK 2018 Young Guns curated by Andrew Lamprecht, Sulger-Buel Lovell, London, U.K 2018 Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa 2017 Uhuru, Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa 2016 Magicien d’Afrique, ODA Gallery, Franschoek, Cape Town, South Africa
Select Reviews, Features and Articles 2020 Uganda, The Independent, Sekajugo’s This is Uganda project, 2020, March 26th, 2020 Dominic Muwanguzi 2020 Wall Street International Magazine: Collin Sekajugo: 16 Mar – 16 Apr at the Sulger Buel Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2019 African Digital Art, Ugandan-Rwandan Contemporary Artist Collin Sekajugo By Jepchumba 2016 Culture Trip, Interview With Rwandan-Ugandan Artist Collin Sekajugo By Isabelle Pitman 2015 The East African, Collin Sekajugo returns to the arts scene with collections inspired by parenthood By Gilbert Mwijuke 2013 New York Times, In Rwanda, Studio Space as Catalyst By Ginanna Brownell 2013 SJ Magazine of Contemporary Arts & Culture in East Africa, Secolliville: An imaginary city in the public space By Dominic Muwanguzi 2010 New Times, Collin Sekajugo launches ‘RWAndA-n-ARt’ magazine
COL L IN SE KA JU G O Dette katalog er udgivet i anledning af en udstilling med værker af Collin Sekajugo Tilrettelæggelse Galerie Moderne Silkeborg i samarbejde med Narayana Press Færdigtrykt på Arctic Volume White i nov 2021 hos Narayana Press Copyright © for teksterne, Galerie Moderne Silkeborg Copyright © for billederne, Collin Sekajugo ISBN: 978-87-90618-10-0 Udstillingsdato fra 27. november – 15. januar www.galeriemoderne.dk Info@galeriemoderne.dk Tel +45 86 81 44 44 Hostrupsgade 39 – 8600 Silkeborg
GALERIE MODERNE SILKEBORG
GALERIE MODERNE SILKEBORG
Galerie Moderne Silkeborg 2021
COLLIN SEK AJUGO