Ngimbi Bakambana Luve

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.

His paintings are a form of pictorial sociology of the SAPE (Society of Ambience-Makers and Elegant People) culture centred in the two Congos and which is reminiscent of Dandy and Rudeboy cultures found elsewhere. Sapology is a state of mind and a set of behaviours and attitudes rooted in urbanity and embodied in the “Kitendi Religion” –described as a religion of fabrics and fashions.

In his creative process, Bakambana borrows from various sources that allow him to venture in a chromatic universe, at once philosophical and historical, intertwining pictorial finds from ancient Egypt to Jazz, and parsing them through the expressionist world view of the Sapologues.

Recent exhibitions include: Untitled:Ngimbi Bakambana Luve, Moussa Traore, Ousmane Niang, Galerie Atiss Dakar, Dakar, Senegal (2020); Eyes East Bound, 13th Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2019) ; Art Paris Art Fair, Galerie Atiss Booth, Paris, France (2019); AKAA, Galerie Atiss Booth, Paris, France (2019) ; Partcours 8, Galerie Atiss Dakar, Dakar, Senegal (2019); Partcours 7, Galerie Atiss Dakar, Dakar, Senegal (2018)