10 years of creating or wolokoso! Review of Ronex Ahimbisibwe Art Exhibition
Ronex Ahimbisibwe is a multi – media visual artist who graduated from the Margaret Trowel school of industrial and fine arts, Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda) in 2001and has been living and working in Kampala since 2012.
Since 2002, Ronex has had 11 solo art exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows in and outside Uganda including Kenya, Tanzania Egypt and in Europe. Guide2Uganda catches up with Ronex while he runs his 2 months Exhibition across different art galleries in Kampala and talks about his works.
My visual journey mainly entails studio research in a quest to discover my own capabilities, strength and doubts by tapping into the magic of the subconscious.
I am always driven by one question, WHAT IF? I thrive on questions like what if I did this and that. What would be the outcome? It’s a joy in itself as one gets surprised by the process and reversal of known truths.
I believe expressing oneself creatively in whatever form isn’t a straight line or shouldn’t be limited by style, medium, rules and norms. In my view, creativity has no boundaries except those delimited by time and matter; one’s physical capacity for work in a quantifiable period of time-space.
My desire has always been to create works that curiously blend in the fashion of the legendary double-edged sword: sophistication meeting naivety, chaos meeting order, beauty meeting ugliness, and aesthetics meeting free- expression and so on.
My welcomed challenge is to show-case ten years of experimentation, which has come to definitively embody my joy, frustration, inspiration and my perception into tangible objects.
In short my life’s journey as an artist (if I deserve to be called so) has become a self portrait with symbols or forms that might echo that or otherwise.
Ten years of creating or “wolokoso”? Gives the public a chance to critique my works from my student days to and freely express their opinions of my journey. Whether they derive any symbolic meaning or not is another business.
Furthermore, the work seeks to explain and attempts to answer questions about methods and materials and the effects of texture on one’s perception. I hope that seeing my entire oeuvre will give viewers a deeper understanding of my artworks.
One person who attends the show has a chance to win one of my private collections.
The artworks on show include paintings, sculptures, wood prints, digital art and photography, furniture and mixed media installations. The work has been done using a wide range of materials which include: wood, bark cloth, paper, filler paste, glues and raisins, oil, outdoor paints, fiber glass, banana fibers, sand, oxides, aluminium, zinc, bronze, sisal, recycled steel and cloth.
The shows are held in 4 different art spaces in Kampala on the following dates shown below:
Afriart Gallery (KCC Flat, 58 Kamwokya of Kira Road, tel. +256 (0)704 883055)
-Recent paintings
Show runs from 22 June – 15 July 2012
Mish mash (28 Aacacia Avenue- Kololo, tel. +256 (0)794 010101)
– Digital arts
– Relief sculpture
– Reprints
– Mirrors and woodprints
Show runs from 29 June – 15 July 2012
School of fine art, Makerere University
– Works from student years
– The artist’s collection
– Works over the years
– Demonstrations of the artist’s techniques
Show starts from 7 July ending 15 August 2012
Fas-Fas art room (Kataza-Bugolobi next to Le Bougainville Hotel)
-Furniture
– Jewelry,
-T-shirts and sculptures
Show runs from 15 July until 15 Aug 2012
This is by far the biggest solo art exhibition by a single artist in Uganda. It has been planned for 4 years and includes the artist’s own collection since 2002.
Follows Ronex on twitter @ronexarts and for viewing his works for through the 10 years visit www.ronexarts.com
