Announcing results from the 2022 Annual Njabala Foundation Open call for artists

Winners:

Charity Atukunda's work is an exploration and uncovering of history in order to contextualize her personal experiences as well as an attempt to escape from the exoticism of what ‘African’ or ‘black woman’ looks like. Atukunda’s style is marked by a conscious use of pattern, symbolism and mythical allusions. Atukunda holds a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial and Fine Arts at Uganda Christian University. Her work has been featured in Kampala Art Biennale 2016 and Kampala Arts Festival (KLA ART) 2021. Her illustrations have been featured by CNN, Vice, El Pais, Cartoon Movement, the London School of Economics Blog, UNBAIS The News, African Feminism, Gal Dem Magazine and Akina Mama wa Afrika. She currently resides in Kampala, Uganda.

Viola Nimuhamya is a Ugandan artist holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Industrial design honors from Kyambogo University. Viola Nimuhamya largely spent most of her early life and education in her native country side which later turned out to be an inspirational sprout that shaped her artistic life. In a stride to launch herself in a creative career, Viola conducted her industrial training from Tadooba Gallery in Mukono district from which she participated in her first group art exhibition “Rhymes of astonishing creations”. She has since participated in several art exhbitions, shows and projects which has elevated her career.

Liz Kobusingye is a self-taught artist based in Kampala, Uganda, whose work and practice grew as a way to cope with declining mental health. She engages with art to cope, making work that is situated within the earnest expression of states of mind, mining her experiences with anxiety and depression to inform multidisciplinary work that explores mental health, as inhabited in the interior worlds of primarily Black women. Her work has been featured in KLA ART 2021, the Salooni Collective at Southbank Centre, UK, Institut, National de Formation Artistique et Culturelle in Burkina Faso and the N’GOLA Biennial of Arts and Culture in São Tomé e Príncipe, with Bookstop Sanaa Art Library & Creative Learning Space (BSS) for DIY Knowledge at Rich Mix, London, and FitClique Africa’s Feminist Utopia installations in Kampala and Nairobi.

Letaru Dralega is a Ugandan British multidisciplinary visual and conceptual artist based in Kampala. A social scientist by training, she studied in an interdisciplinary Bachelor's of Social Sciences programme, majoring in Humanitarian Law (2014) and received a Masters degree in International Development in 2019 at Sciences Po Paris, France. Her work has been exhibited as part of Collage Broadly Defined, and Playing to the Gallery at Afriart Gallery Kampala in 2020 and Safety and Storytelling: Arts heritage exhibit, University of Juba, South Sudan 2022. Letaru is an alumna of Asiko Art School (Praia 2022) and 32 degrees East Ugandan Arts Trust (Kampala 2017) and co-founded the Afropocene Studio Lab Co-arts space in 2021. She is a recipient of the Prince Claus seed award 2022.

Honourable mentions:

Darren Akoragye is a visual Artist born and raised in Kampala Uganda. She expresses her work with both digital and traditional art media. She has a degree in Bachelors of Commerce majoring in Finance and she's self taught in her art disciplines. She is the founder and creator of the Alkebulan Faces Nft Collection on opensea.

Nalubega Rosemary is a student at Makerere University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Art and Design at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial Fine Art and Design. She has participated in both Nakayima exhibition and Julius Nyerere exhibition in Makerere University.

Natasha Karungi Kashushu a self taught contemporary visual artist based in Kampala, Uganda. Kashushu works across various media like NFTS, acrylic paint, fabric manipulation, graphite pencils and pen on paper, oil pastels, adobe illustrator, procreate and adobe photoshop.

Nsuutamukama Favour graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Art and Design (Painting and Sculpture) in 2019 from Kyambogo University. Her work weaves personal experiences with everyday activities in her society. She has participated in several group exhibitions such as AtWork 2018 Uganda, Power Online Exhibition as well as East Africa Art Connect Exhibition.

Nantongo J. Olivia Mary is a visual artist and mixed media painter who specialises in executing portrait and full figured paintings of women, to relay messages about self-love. She also does conceptual photography. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Fine Arts at Makerere University in Kampala.