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Kemanguluko Art & Photography Exhibition

The Omba Gallery in the Old Breweries building in the Windhoek CBD is host to a combined exhibition, starting this week Friday. Called Kemanguluko, the exhibition is a mixed media collaboration by four Namibian artists exploring the complex and often politicised concept of ‘freedom.’ Internationally renowned artist, John Sampson opens the exhibition on Friday evening.

Kemanguluko means ‘towards freedom’ in Oshiwambo and describes a process or movement in a particular direction. The group of Namibian artists embracing the dictum of ‘kemanguluko’, collaborated to present discerning viewers with four different perspectives and explorations of freedom using photography and paint.
About Tuli-Mekondjo Mbumba. ‘I want the freedom to create without being categorised; I want the freedom to create whatever I want as an artist.’ Self-taught Namibian fine artist, Tuli-Mekondjo Mbumba, was born in a refugee camp in Angola during the Namibian Angolan Border War. It is therefore not surprising that the name given to her, Tuli-Mekondjo, means ‘we are in the struggle’ in Oshiwambo, her native language. She exhibits six paintings of various sizes as part of the Kemanguluko collaboration exhibition at Omba Gallery.
About Liezl Hoving
‘Our free nature is not just one thing; it also encompasses the freedom to move…to transition.’ Namibian photographer, Liezl Hoving, is famous for her ‘Project Feet’ exhibition which continues to resonate with those who attended her exhibition, four years later. She has the need and remarkable ability to emotionally connect on numerous levels with her subject matter and, to successfully convey the intimacy of that connection to viewers using only a camera.
Hoving will exhibit a series of black and white photographs. Despite the absence of colour, Hoving’s images are not strictly black and white but rather a visual encounter of traditional black and white photography with languid shadows of nude silhouettes.
About Christian Goltz
‘Photography is about perception and psychology.’
UNAM photography lecturer, Christian Goltz, is well-known for his sensual depictions of women from Africa. His aesthetic developed as a direct result of specific personal experiences under Apartheid when social contact and conduct were divided along racial lines and sharply contradicted his naturally approachable and social disposition.
Goltz conceptualised his ‘Born Free’ photography project. A series of photographs depicting women, he remarks upon the remarkable changes women have undergone since Independence. He will display three large, colour photo portraits depicting larger-than-life neck-and-head images of ‘born free’ women staring directly at the viewer.
About Marita van Rooyen
‘The choice and ability to look at ordinary objects in a different way, sets you free.’
Marita van Rooyen, a Masters in Documentary Photography graduate, turned her focus from the world outside inwards. In a fascinating process of prolonged introspection using a camera as medium, the imagery of her photographs increasingly became reflections of ordinary recognisable objects as abstractions. The photographs she exhibits were part of her Masters thesis and are an inspiring collection of abstract portrayals.

 

Artists: Marita van Rooyen, Tuli-Mekondjo Mbumba, Christian Goltz, Liezl Hoving
Venue: Omba Gallery
Opening date: Friday, 4 September, 2015
Time: 18:00 for 18:30
Refreshments and snacks will be served.

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