"A new arts centre would do a lot…If someone could invest in an arts centre I’m sure it would promote the arts to another level and be economically rewarding to the artists and promoter …a lot would happen there… showcasing artists with concepts, installations… with an aim of allowing freedom of expression"

Ronex Ahimbisbwe, Ugandan contemporary artist



The above quote forms the grounding philosophy to 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust, a new supportive network for contemporary visual arts in Uganda.

32° East recognises there is remarkable untapped and unfostered potential in the Uganda arts scene but currently not enough resources to make it thrive. Based in the capital Kampala, the Trust will provide artists with studio and exhibition space, local and international workshops, residencies and artist-led outreach projects.

Partnerships and networks are key to 32º East’s success. Through support from such organizations as the British Council, Kuona Trust and Triangle Arts Network we aim to strengthen the artistic community and raise the profile of Ugandan Arts to a national and international level.

At the top of one of Kampala’s seven hills, Idi Amin’s old bunker is being used as a studio space.



Unfortunately the dispute over land is proving difficult for artists David Kigozi and Jude Kateete who met 10 years ago through an artists workshop.

"We are living amongst armed police, it is not a relaxed environment for us to work and we never know who is in control of the land so we could be evicted at any time.”

Kigozi and Kateete share the space with a group of craft workers and have built a platform on which they work precariously perched on wooden floorboards six feet above the ground. Both these artists have established themselves on the Ugandan art scene and are represented by the small collection of commercial galleries in the capital.

Everything is improvised; from the studio space to the materials they use. Acrylic paints cost them twice as much as they do in the UK and quality, primed canvas is impossible to afford. Instead, they use pieces of material even corduroy and old tablecloths from the market yet despite these set backs the work they produce is inspired.

    
Left: Artist David Kigozi        Right: 'Afro Series' | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm

Kigozi uses large brushstrokes, spontaneous movement through the use of a palette knife and most importantly he has the ability to capture the beauty of the African body. In his Afro Series, Kigozi plays with composition and colour focusing on the features of his sitter and blurring the background into solid blocks of colour on which he can project his subject.

    
Left: Artist Jude Kateete                                                             Right: 'Skipping' | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 90cm

Jude has taken a less realist approach, using the theme of children at play but proving more conceptual in interpretation to that of his contemporaries. He works in a minimalist style which is alien to many African artists who are so eager to fill the canvas with colour and detail. He uses simple lines to create a highly aesthetic and pleasing execution of simple subject matter. He uses a plain palette and his figures are reminiscent of British artist Julian Opie's style of black outlines and flat areas of colour. He is thinking apart from the rest; it is inspiration in an art world of copycats.

‘Beware! Vicious Chickens’ warns the plastic sign hanging on the gate but I take my chances and pass through to the small studio where the ageing fish tank has grown even darker with algae.

Four years have passed since I visited Tom Coffee at his studio and home in Rusape, Zimbabwe and thankfully little has changed. His parting words in 2007 were “You know, I might not be around too much longer” so I was pleased to see him in his kitchen baking a cake when I arrived. I am greeted with a kiss and huge smile. He loves to have company although he assures me that he is quite happy there on his own. His painting gives him purpose which sadly not many 83 year old's can claim to have “so life is worth living."

We are suddenly interrupted by a whirlwind in the form of a yapping psychotic Jack Russell named Chloe. I peer outside to where her elderly owner is feebly calling after her. After three record breaking laps round the sitting room, the dog peels off and out the door. Tom is unfazed.

His production of paintings has not slowed in fact Tom currently has four paintings on the go. His technique is to work on them all at the same time, taking one colour and using it on each one before moving onto the next.

A large painting hangs on the easel, still wet from the last layer of paint. He wants me to guess amongst the dozens of figures which was his inspiration for the painting. His challenge takes me back to my Where’s Wally days of scouring an illustration for a geeky spectacled man, but I soon spot it; an African woman dancing, her rear in the air - perfectly captured.


Circled above: The dancing lady; the figure the painting was based around

To view Tom’s paintings click here

© Tom Gildon

Our latest exhibition opened with a bang at the Private View of Construção - recent paintings by Brazilian artists Fabio Merker and Tulio Pinto. Both artists are well represented in Brazil and have paintings in private collections across Europe but this is their first show in the UK.

It is also a collaboration with British architects Sophie Goldhill and David Liddicoat of Liddicoat & Goldhill. Their award winning practice has designed, built and developed a new build private house in Camden, North London. NH.com teamed up with L & G to host the exhibition in The Shadow House, the newly completed project that was ready to open its doors to the public during the exhibition.

Hundreds of people came to see the opening of the exhibition, those interested in the art and the architecture, it was a wonderful partnership with both elements complimenting the other. The textured layering of Merker's canvasses hung beautifully against the shining black bricks of the house and natural light flooded through the glass ceiling on the top floor to illuminate the bright, vivacious colours adopted by Tulio Pinto.

A great collaboration indeed. Thank you to those who came to see it, we hope you enjoyed the experience!

If you are unable to view the slideshow below please visit our Facebook page



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Photographs by Tom Gildon

Today saw the opening of Fábio Merker's exhibition at Galeria Modernidade in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil. It is the first solo exhibition for the Brazilian who grew up in New York and now lives and works in his native country. The exhibition will run for two weeks.

NicolaHall.com is pleased to announce that Merker will join Túlio Pinto for a joint exhibition in London next year. We are teaming up with young British architects, Liddicoat & Goldhill to show the work of the two Brazilians in a newly designed and developed private home in North London.

We'll keep you posted....

Zimbabwean artist Arthur Azevedo has exclusively designed a collection of six animal sketches for NicolaHall.com

The animals including Elephant, Hyena, Baboon, Hippo, Rhino and Warthog are fresh from the artist's studio in Harare and are now available to buy online. Catch them before they get away....

   

'Casa' is Brazil's "biggest and best magazine for decoration and design" and one of our artist's, Túlio Pinto, was proud to see his work on the wall of the house featured that month. Pinto's enormous 2m² painting was bought from his representative gallery Galeria Eduardo H. Fernandes in São Paulo, by a well known Paulista socialite and hung in their exclusive home. Designed and constructed by a famous contemporary architect, the house was snapped by 'Casa' and features a stunning photograph of the painting in situ. See below...

May 21st, 10am-6pm, FREE
Troubadour
236-267 Old Brompton Road- SW5 9JA
nicolahall.com
troubadour.co.uk

"Online brasilian and african art gallery springs to life for a day."

"The basement of London’s Troubadour Café has been graced by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Page, but upstairs this May it’ll showcase the first physical exhibition of rising Brasilian artists from a new online gallery, nicolahall.com."

"Having studied Art History and worked at the Royal Academy and Tryon Gallery, the website is passion and project of young English art dealer Nicola Elphinstone. But it was her partner’s international career which took them to Zimbabwe, Kenya and finally Brasil, immersing her in the vibrant art scenes abroad. Now representing and selling artists’ work from these countries, Nicola aims to “bring within reach original and affordable art."

"Launching the website in February, where she provides insight into each artist’s life with journal accounts, she recently returned from two years in Brasil. This month she’ll hold a one-day show presenting the work of three Brasilians: Menelaw Sete, ‘the Picasso of Brasil’ (above), a Salvador-based eccentric who once held an underwater exhibition; Túlio Pinto (below), with vast acrylic compositions bursting with colour; and Fábio Merker (top image), fascinated by degrees of dis/organisation, adapting the Brasil flag moto as ‘Order and Chaos’, mixing ridgid motifs with (uncontrollable) dripping paint. Catch their work before it’s back to hyperreality."

______________________________

May 21st, 10am-6pm, FREE
Troubadour
236-267 Old Brompton Road- SW5 9JA
nicolahall.com
troubadour.co.uk