Kura Shomali is born in 1979, in Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo
Le Chef, 2013.
About:
Shomali describes his work as a way of ‘digesting’ the megalopolis of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. In his most recent works, the artist appropriates well-known images by African photographers such as Seydou Keita, Samual Fosso, Sammy Baloji, Malick Sidibe and Depara. Shomali combines charcoal, ballpoint pen, gouache, ink, felt, glitter and collage to give these works a unique texture. His works have a sense of urgency, inspired by the chaos of daily life and imagery from the advertising, newspapers and magazines that make up Kinshasa’s street culture.
Untitled, 2013.
Shomali’s recent exhibitions include African Stories at Museum of Marrakech, Morocco, and JapanCongo: Works from the Pigozzi Collection at Magasin Grenoble, France. Several works will be included in the Saatchi Gallery’s upcoming exhibition of works on paper.
FBI, 2011.
Quote from the artist:
Kinshasa is a city, a very immense city in which more than ten million people are trying to live. It is here that I grew up—I built my experiences and my debut as an artist. It is the city and its components that I’m trying to digest for making art. Not an art of recycling the African, but an art that is like life. Recycling is a vital necessity for most people in Kinshasa, for me it is this town and its inhabitants that feed my inspiration and my work.
I use the expressions of passersby on the ‘princes’ (streets of Kinshasa), their extraverted or introverted appearances. I represent them. I illustrate the songi songi, rumors spread by the radio and sidewalk, which is the main information circulating in the countless, densely populated streets. Like many artists from Kinshasa, my work is polymorphic.
I work every day, rapidly and slowly drawing from magazines that I find, local and international publications on current affairs or art. With humor and militancy, I realize phantasmagoria amid a deluge of bulky bars, large markets, hospitals, pharmacies, politicians with their train of armed troops accompanied by jeeps of MONUC (the UN Mission in Congo), not to mention weddings, funerals and street children running around.
Shomali is represented by Jack Bell, London.