Ngimbi (Luve) Bakambana was born in Kinshasa, DRC in 1977 and trained at L’Academie des Beaux Arts, Kinshasa. He is also educated in music at the Conservatoire de Nanterre, France. He lives and works in Paris, France.
Bakambana is among the first of his generation to have exhibited with the ‘masters’ of Congolese art such as Mavinga, Chéri Samba, Nginamau, Lema Kusa, Liyolo, Botembe, François Tamba Ndembe in DRC and in Germany. François Tamba Ndembe, one of the foremost Congolese sculptors, forward thinker and the most affecting artist by the shapes and mastery of his composition, was his mentor in art.
In his expressionistic approach to art, Bakambana leverages colour to intimate what words express in verbal communication. He is inspired by the social context of his native Congo which serves to express his thoughts and understanding of the world through colours.
Bakambana’s paintings are a form of pictorial sociology of the SAPE1 culture centred in the two Congos, and which is reminiscent of Dandy and Rudeboy cultures found elsewhere.