Pierre Mukeba Biography

Early Life

Born in 1995 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pierre Mukeba fled the country with his family due to civil war. They travelled as refugees to Zambia and Zimbabwe before seeking asylum in Adelaide, Australia, where Mukeba has lived and worked since 2006.

Receiving no formal art training, Pierre Mukeba took up art as a refugee in Zimbabwe where he learned from his uncle. Additionally, Mukeba was influenced by his grandfather, a Congolese artist.

Drawn partly from experience and partly from imagination, Pierre Mukeba's artworks tell scenes that tell stories of memory, family, violence, trauma and exploitation. Mukeba works in a surreal and collage-like style, combining drawing and painting on fabrics with appliques of African wax-resistant fabrics.

Pierre Mukeba's early works were made on bedsheets. Working at a small table in his bedroom, the artist experimented with drawing with pencils, brush pens, and charcoal; and by incorporating his mother's vibrant patterned clothing into his compositions.

The fabrics incorporated into Mukeaba's works hold cultural significance; originating from Dutch imitations of Javanese Batik which were introduced to Africa through colonial trade, the textiles call upon specific West African locales and societies affected by colonialism.

Seminal Works

In Mukeba's 'Trauma' series (2017)—the subject of his first solo show at GAGPROJECTS in Adelaide—the artist created a compelling set of full-length portraits drawn with coloured brush pens and enhanced with appliques of vibrant fabrics on unstretched cotton. Works in the series present named and unnamed child soldiers, exploited workers, mothers, and victims of violence and poverty.

Mukeba is also known for his renditions of strong female figures; the four-person portrait Impartiality (2018), partially inspired by Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), depicts a powerful image of African women at different stages in life. In a New York Times feature of Mukeba's work, the artist explains: 'I focused on the strength that these women hold, regardless of the situations that have been inflicted on them.'

In 2019 Pierre Mukeba's work Ride to Church (2019) won the Ramsay Art Prize Lipman Karas People's Choice Award. The four-metre-long mixed-media work on canvas depicts an African family riding a motorcycle to church—imagery recalled from the artist's childhood in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Mukeba presented his largest work to date at the Art Gallery of South Australia: two large, curved dioramas titled Kitenge (Part I), and Kitenge (Part II) (2020). Standing between the two works, viewers were surrounded by a selection of characters ranging from Pende tribesmen, faceless militiamen and figures sporting contemporary street fashion.

In 2021, Pierre Mukeba's solo show Black Emotion at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney presented a series of emotive and surreal works in pastel and charcoal. Frenzied and expressive in their creation, works like Reflection of the Soul (2021), and the series 'Emotions of Colour' (2021) present an imploding mass of figurative imagery and symbols. This confluence of symbols comprises conflicting aspects of the artist's complex identity as an African male raised in Australia.

Exhibitions

Pierre Mukeba's solo exhibitions include Pierre Mukeba: Black Emotion, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2021); Undisclosed, GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide (2020); Pierre Mukeba, Hamilton Gallery, Hamilton, Australia (2019); Trauma, GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide (2017).

Pierre Mukeba's group exhibitions include Lockdown, GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide (2020); Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2019); Vis-ability, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane (2019); Her Name, Adelaide Central School Gallery (2018); Home, Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, Melbourne (2017).

Further information

Pierre Mukeba's Instagram can be found here.

Michael Irwin | Ocula | 2021