Zemba Luzamba : Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close)

1 – 31 May

Zemba Luzamba
Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close)
Zemba Luzamba

Zemba Luzamba (b. 1973) is an artist born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He moved to South Africa to pursue his career as an artist and this experience of migration has allowed him an intimate and sympathetic view of migrant communities which has informed many of his works over the past 15 years. A contemporary realist, Luzamba's paintings hover on the border of satire, at once appearing to mimic the colonial lifestyle of the post-colonial elites while simultaneously bringing it into question. Is this pure observation, aspiration or critique?

Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look Close) (2025); Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, USA (2024); Folk Ritual, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2023); Kitendi, Galerie Studer, Abidjan, Ivory Coast (2023); TOTEM, EBONY / CURATED Cape Town, South Africa (2023); In the Name of…, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2022); Connexion, EBONY/CURATED Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Déjà vu at the 5^th Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi, DR Congo (2017); In The South – Paintings from 2004-(2017), Stellenbosch University Museum, South Africa (2017); Genesis, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa (2016); It Is What It Is, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2015); LA SAPE, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2013); LA SAPE, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2012); Hope for Refugees, Rome, Italy (2005); Untitled, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2004).
Group exhibitions include AKAA (Also Known As Africa), EBONY/CURATED, Paris, France (2023); Africa Supernova, Museum Kade, Amersfoort, Netherlands (2023); Knokke Art Fair, Galerie Studer, Belgium (2023); Where the Wild Roses Grow, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2023); If You Look Hard Enough You Can See Our Future, African American Museum, Dallas, USA (2023); Tomorrow is Tomorrow is Tomorrow; Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); 'Untitled Miami Beach', with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Miami, USA (2022); When We See Us, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), South Africa (2022); Shout Plenty, the African Artists Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria (2022); AAGA annual African Galleries Now online edition powered by Artsy, Africa (2022); A Very Loop Street Summer, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2021); Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, FNB Art Joburg, Open City, Keyes Art Mile, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa (2021); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED booth, London, England (2021); 8 by 8, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2021); Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Virtual Representation, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2021); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, (Virtual Representation) EBONY/CURATED, New York, US (2021); In [the] Loop, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2021); FNB Art Joburg online edition, Main Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa (2020); Intersect Chicago online edition of SOFA Expo, Chicago, US (2020); AKAA (Also Known as Africa) 2019, Paris, France (2019); A Smaller Scale, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2019); Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2019); The Summer Exhibition, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2018); From the Horse’s Mouth, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa (2017).

Highlights and Collections

Luzamba’s work can be found in international private and public collections, including Fondation H Museum, Antananarivo, Madagascar; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, United States; Durban Art Gallery, South Africa, Irma Stern Museum, South Africa, Nandos Art Collection, UK/South Africa, Scalabrini House, Italy, Cultures Inc, US, Museum of Modern Art, Equatorial Guinea; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, US; The Bunker Art Space (Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection), USA; UTA Artist Space Collection, USA; Kilbourn Collection, Cape Town, South Africa; The Spier Art Collection, Cape Town, South Africa; Zeitz MOCAA Collection, Cape Town, South Africa.
Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close)

A line of men wearing hats, colourful jackets and brogues stand in a line with their hands clasped or tucked into their trouser pockets. Though they are not touching, we sense in the subtle mirroring of their body language that they belong to a common group, that they are brothers and will stand together whatever happens. This is one in a series of new paintings by the Congolese artist Zemba Luzamba that make up his solo exhibition Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close) at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Tower Bridge and that invite us to find meaning and emotion in gestures, clothing and facial expressions. Through carefully constructed scenes, Luzamba examines contemporary forms of self-expression, community and resistance.

Luzamba begins by sketching out his ideas before selecting compositions to paint based on the ways in which they interact with one another to ‘facilitate a particular dialogue’ which for this latest exhibition centered around a feeling of ‘now: the present moment.’ This idea of nowness may appear to be somewhat complicated by the appearance of his figures who are dressed in retro-looking formalwear, but tis mode of dress is specific to the culture that Luzamba is painting as well as to the ideas that he is trying to express.

In the 1960s and 70s a Congolese subculture known as SAPE (the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes) emerged in response to President Mobutu’s banning of Western-style style suits in favour of the abacost, a lightweight suit which was traditionally worn without a tie. The abacost was seen as the uniform of Mobutu’s supporters, especially those who had benefited from his regime. As such, the wearing of a suit and tie became a symbol of resistance and freedom, and today, it still retains that association for many Congolese people. In this exhibition, the distinctive clothing is paired with the use of Swahili, Luzamba’s native tongue, to title the paintings and further imbue the works with cultural specificity. For instance, the painting in which the men are standing in a line is titled Bakolo tirran, an idiomatic expression that refers to people who have gained a sense of authority and ownership within their neighbourhood through having lived in the community for a long time even though they may not own the land which they inhabit.
Mulambo (black tax 2) refers to the financial burden placed on successful Black individuals who are expected to support family members as a way of paying them back for the care and education they received in childhood. This ‘tax’, though less common now, is often seen as a cultural obligation. In Luzamba’s painting, a hand reaches to pinch a dollar bill from the pocket of a man who gazes out at the viewer with an inscrutable expression. Meanwhile, Mkimbizi (asylum seeker) depicts a man hurrying along the pavement, arms laden with suitcases. This man is what Luzamba refers to as ‘a modern asylum seeker’, someone who has fled their home country not due to conflict or loss, but in order to dodge taxes and accumulate more wealth. In both of these works, as throughout the series, Luzamba passes no judgment, leaving the viewer free to make up their own interpretations.

Elsewhere, in paintings such as Maisha mpya (new life) and Mwanzo mpya, Luzamba explores the sense of hope that can be found in everyday new beginnings: an egg stands as a traditional symbol of origin and birth, its golden shell suggesting wealth and magic, while the cutting of a rope invokes the ceremonial practice of inauguration. InPamoja na furah (togetherness)a group of men gather in a circle to drink whiskey as a ritual of celebration, their matching black suits evoking a sense of occasion while again expressing solidarity and community.

These are all scenes that capture moments from contemporary life and within a particular cultural context, but the message they convey is universal: human spirit is defined by resilience, hope and resourcefulness. Whatever the time or the circumstance, we must and will continue to find ways to carve out our own paths and to come together.
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- Zemba Luzamba, Status, 2025

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Zemba Luzamba : Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close)

Zemba Luzamba

Zemba Luzamba

Angalia Kwa Karibu (Look close)

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