'Afrocentric' @ the Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka

Zambia Fri 20-05-2011

'Afrocentric' @ the Henry Tayali Gallery, Lusaka
By Andrew Mulenga/ Hole in the wall Blog

Chilyapa 'Danny' Lwando and Nezias 'Neziland' Nyirenda's two-man exhibition of paintings and sculptures entitled Afrocentric openened at the Henry Tayali gallery in the Lusaka showgrounds on 14th May 2011 evening running through until May 27 while Stary Mwaba's untitled solo of about 20 recent paintings at the Zebra Crossings Cafe/Ababa House along Addis Ababa Road in Lusaka opened opened on May 15th and runs until May 31.

Both shows are sure to be exciting, Mwaba is currently a household name on the Zambian art scene, the 35-year-old has ample international exposure and a passionate string of collectors, his Ababa House exhibition does not seem to have a fixed theme and is therefore showing a wide range of subject matter.

^{The Love Letter, 2008. Acrylic, fabric on canvas, 200 x 265cm | Image from jhblive.com}

Lwando and Nyirenda's Afrocentric however does seem to have a prescribed theme as the title suggests but it is basically a display of one-off furniture and sculpture pieces by the latter and tribal carving inspired paintings by the former.

Lwando, who's style is still yet to be defined and can be identified as having been influenced by a cross-section of Zambian as well as foreign painters, is featuring works that are distinctively inspired by viewers' reactions to classical anthropomorphic African wood carvings, the kind Europeans or the global west often refer to as 'fetishes'.

^{Chilyapa Lwando’s Stereotyped ID IX, (2011), acrylic and scrap metal on canvas}

"The reason why I went into this is because of the different reactions people had when I was doing a photographic documentary on these objects, people are generally scared of them because they are believed to be used for magic, but honestly, some were just used by chiefs as ornamental objects. But people, especially black Zambian's are still scared of them" explains Lwando "They were actually small sculptures, collected by a white man. Collected from different parts of Zambia and Congo, but mostly congo.

Read more here from Hole in the wall blog.

Posted By: Maggie Otieno

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