Collin Sekajugo (Ugandan/Rwandan, born 1980)
Lost Card, 2018
Signed ‘signature’ (lower middle)
Mixed media on canvas
119 x 117 cm
Ksh 220,000–330,000
(US$ 2,000–3,000)
Sold Ksh 258,280
Provenance: direct from the artist
Collin Sekajugo’s Lost Card continues an ongoing exploration of personal identity in the artist’s oeuvre. Born in Rwanda, and having led an itinerant lifestyle – living at different times in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and the USA, and travelling often for his practice – the question of personal identity and how it shifts and evolves relative to the individual’s surroundings is one to which he has returned often. In Lost Card, the faceless figure drapes a shawl protectively over his own body while multiple silhouettes hover around him, coming in and out of view. Here the artist considers individual encounters with new cultures and the adaptation that such encounters make necessary. Contextually, the lost card is “what we always leave behind in our quest for new lifestyles and new adventures.”
Currently based in Kampala, Sekajugo works predominantly in painting, sculpture and installation. Adopting the language of consumerism, often incorporating everyday objects into his work, Sekajugo comments on the place of material objects and our interaction with our shifting environments in the formation of identities.
He has exhibited and participated in numerous residencies in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC. He is the founder of the Ivuka Arts in Kigali, Rwanda and the Weaverbird Art Centre in Masaka, Uganda.