Lot 23

Samson ‘Xenson’ Ssenkaaba (Ugandan, born 1978)
Mama Dorotia, 2021
Signed ‘Xenson 2021’ (lower middle)
Enamel on recycled aluminium beverage cans
122.9 x 102.9 cm
US$ 9,000 – 15,000
Provenance: direct from the artist
Bought in

Fluent in many forms–painting, sculpture, installation, and performance– Samson Ssenkaaba, popularly known as ‘Xenson’, makes use of everyday materials such as aluminium cans and oil drums to engage with the complexities and contradictions of contemporary culture in his native Uganda. This work from 2021 is part of an ongoing Kadugala Mukatale series of masterfully constructed portraits painted over flattened, Ugandan canned drinks.

Xenson graduated with first class honours in Painting and Graphic Design from the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts at Makerere University in 1999. His practice since then has spanned the mediums of music, poetry, fashion and visual art, taking part in exhibitions and residencies worldwide including: Gunflowermask, Afriart Gallery, Kampala, 2017; Art Transposition, LKB/G Gallery, Hamburg, 2017; Kabbo Ka Muwala (The Girl’s Basket), Makerere Gallery, Kampala, 2016; Kampala Contemporary, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, 2015; KLA Art 014, Kampala, 2014; The Lubare and the Boat, Deveron Arts, Scotland, 2014; and Africa Now: Fashioning Personhood, Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA, 2014. Xenson’s work has been in various auctions, including Piasa, Paris, 2018.