Afriart Gallery presents ‘Shapes of Water’, a group exhibition portraying works by women artists from Eastern and Southern Africa, curated by Lara Buchmann, on display until August 12.

The artists who form part of the group are Charity Atukunda (Uganda), Amani Azhari (Sudan), Naseeba Bagalaaliwo (Uganda), Nelsa Guambe (Mozambique), April Kamunde (Kenya), Maliza Kiasuwa (DRC), Charlene Komuntale (Uganda), Kitso Lynn Lelliott (South Africa), Sungi Mlengeya (Tanzania), and Mona Taha (Uganda). The exhibition offers space for individual and genuine expressions of femininity by these female artists, and aims to incite conversations and inspire them to imagine new possibilities.

‘Shapes of Water’ views femininity through the metaphor of water – Earth and the human body’s vital component. Water’s physical and political aspects reflect femininity, highlighting the efforts to control it, mirroring societal attempts to police women’s bodies. However, like water, genuine female expression seeps through in various forms amidst joy and pain. The exhibition proposes femininity as fluid, reshaping itself under societal pressures but refusing to be constrained. It suggests femininity could adopt other forms, breaking free from imposed boundaries, akin to water transforming into ice or evaporating to rain elsewhere.

Lara Buchmann is an independent curator and yoga teacher based in Kampala. She studied Cultural Anthropology and Visual Art at the University of Cologne and Bayreuth, Germany, with a focus on Ugandan modernist artist Peter Mulindwa. In 2017, she moved to Kampala and became the cultural coordinator at Goethe-Zentrum/UGCS. Since then, she has been organizing various city cultural activities, festivals, and events.

Afriart Gallery focuses on original forms of expression and dialogue with the public. It provides an environment where collectors can find powerful contemporary artistic ideas and discussions.

Source: Afriart Gallery.