“New Liberia comes out of the time lag between aspects of early 20th century Malawian modernist cultures and various emancipatory social and political movements.” – Samson Kambalu
For his largest solo exhibition, Samson Kambalu’s powerful installation creates the atmosphere of an initiation ceremony for a utopia of international racial justice that equally values each person. This idea of a ‘New Liberia’ marks a mass change in attitudes, sparked by the pandemic and global Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
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Find out more about the exhibition
Samson Kambalu’s exhibition is grounded in the events of his African childhood, watching makeshift cinema and Nyau dances of ancestral costumes (a secret society of the Chewa, the largest indigenous group in Malawi), and enjoying playground swaps of national flag cards, whilst living under a dictatorship that came after British colonial rule.
Drawing from three centuries of philosophy, social pioneers and Malawian culture, Kambalu’s playful exhibition balances colour, humour and intelligence. Combining video, images, texts and sculptures, the exhibition exudes what the artist has become celebrated for: his vivid imagination and outstanding creativity.
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Samson Kambalu
Oxford-based artist and writer Samson Kambalu (b. 1975 Chiradzulu, Malawi), studied at the University of Malawi (BA Fine Art and Ethnomusicology, 1995-99); Nottingham Trent University (MA Fine Art, 2002-03) and Chelsea College of Art and Design (PhD, 2011 – 15).
Kambalu authored the first memoir of a childhood in Malawi, The Jive Talker (2008), and his artworks have been exhibited around the world, including Dakar Biennale (2014, 2016), Tokyo International Art Festival (2009) and the Liverpool Biennial (2004, 2016), and featured in All the World’s Futures, Venice Biennale 2015, curated by Okwui Enwezor. With solo exhibitions at PEER Gallery, London, and Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium in 2020; Whitechapel Gallery, London and NSU Art Museum, Miami in 2016.
Kambalu’s work is in the national art collections of Tate, the British Council, and the Contemporary Art Society, and his research fellowships include Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution. Kambalu is an associate professor of fine art at The Ruskin School of Art and a fellow at Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
Images
Responses
Extraordinary exhibition. Spacious, considered and very thoughtful.
— Exhibition visitor★★★★ - Kambalu tears a strip off Britain’s colonial legacy. His art looks fast, but unfolds far more pensively.
— Laura Cumming, The ObserverKambalu's improvised scenes function as an escape from the conventions of daily life. Here, to play is to become free.
— World of InteriorsI laughed, I cried, thought provoking and enlivening.
— Exhibition visitorThere is always more than meets the eye, and a lot to unpack, in Kambalu’s art.
— Adrian Searle, The GuardianMedia
Samson Kambalu, A Game of War: Kambalu v Sanguinetti Trial at Ostend, 2021
Samson Kambalu in Conversation with Emma Ridgway
Samson Kambalu, Don, 2014.
Samson Kambalu, Drawing in the 18th Century, 2017
Samson Kambalu, Cathedral, 2016
Samson Kambalu, Fast Talker, 2017
Supported by
This exhibition is generously supported by Modern Art Oxford’s Commissioning Circle, John Fell Fund Oxford University and Kate MacGarry Gallery.
With thanks to TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities), Magdalen College University of Oxford, Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm and Goodman Gallery South Africa.