Our Uganda Friday: 27 August 2010

Tonight Paul Ndema celebrated the opening of an exhibition at his new studio in Bugolobi, a neighborhood of Kampala. Known in Kampala for his shirt designs, Ndema set up his exhibition in an entirely unique way. Instead of hanging his pieces on the walls, the floor of his gallery was covered in small, carefully arranged paintings and prints.

















Detail of a painting by Ndema. He sells T-shirts screen-printed with this image.


Ndema describes himself as shy about his work, which may explain the furtiveness of the arrangement. While most Ugandan artists put their energies into big paintings and sell them for anywhere from $200 to $2000, Ndema prefers to keep his large paintings and sell smaller prints of details and T-shirts to fund his work.

Visitors to the exhibition were invited to do a little painting of their own on small boards set up outside. Fun stuff.