Samson Kambalu (born 1975) is a

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

-born artist, academic and author who trained as a fine artist and ethnomusicologist at the

University of Malawi The University of Malawi (UNIMA) is a public university established in 1965 and until 4 May 2021, when the university underwent a delinking, was composed of four constituent colleges located in Zomba, Blantyre, and Lilongwe. Of the four colleges, ...

's Chancellor College. He is a Fellow of

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

Life and work

Kambalu was born in Malawi, where he attended

Kamuzu Academy Kamuzu Academy is a private boarding school in Malawi that was founded by, and named after, the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the former President of Malawi. It is described by its proponents as "The Eton College, Eton of Africa". In 1987, it was ...

, the "Eton of Africa". He graduated from the

's Chancellor College, Zomba in 1999. Kambalu completed his MA in Fine Art at

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

in 2003 and wrote his PhD at

Chelsea College of Art and Design Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

, looking at how the problematic of the gift and the general economy animates various aspects of his art practice. Kambalu's work, which references

Situationism The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

and the

Chewa Chewa may refer to: *the Chewa people *the Chewa language Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozamb ...

Nyau Nyau (also: ''Nyao'' meaning ''mask'' or ''initiation'') is a secret society of the Chewa, an ethnic group of the Bantu peoples from Central and Southern Africa. The Nyau society consists of initiated members of the Chewa and Nyanja people, form ...

culture of his native Malawi, manifests in various media, from drawing, painting, installation, video to literature and performance. One of his most well known artworks is ''Holy Ball'', a football plastered in pages of the Bible. Kambalu held an exhibition of 24 "Holy Balls" at Chancellor College in 2000 at which he invited the visitors to “exercise and exorcise”. He has since shown his work internationally. In 2015 he was included in

Okwui Enwezor Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ''ArtReview'' list of the 100 m ...

's ''All the World's Futures'' at the 56th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In November 2015 a judge in Venice dismissed a complaint filed by the Italian situationist

Gianfranco Sanguinetti Gianfranco Sanguinetti (born 16 July 1948, Pully, Switzerland) is a writer who was a member of the Situationist International (SI), a political art movement. He is Teresa Mattei's son. Biography Sanguinetti was deported from France in 1971 and s ...

against the Venice Biennale and Kambalu with regard to the unauthorised and wholescale appropriation of Sanguinetti's entire archive for one of Kambalu's installations, ''Sanguinetti Breakout Area''. Kambalu's ''Nyau Cinema'' is a series of short film clips of psychogeographical performances, shared as interventions on social networking sites and as installations in galleries. These have been described as "cinematic fragments that blend slapstick and spiritual ritual". His first book, an autobiographical narrative entitled ''The Jive Talker or How to Get a British Passport'', was published by Jonathan Cape (

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

) in July 2008, and in August 2008 by Free Press (

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

). His second novel, ''Uccello's Vineyard'', published in 2012, is in ''The Book Lovers'', a collection of artist novels at the

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. Kambalu is represented by Kate MacGarry in London and Galerie Nordenhake in Stockholm. On 5 July 2021, it was announced that Kambalu's artwork had been selected as the next to occupy the

Fourth plinth The Fourth plinth is the northwest plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London. It was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, but remained bare due to insufficient funds. For over 150 years the fate of the plinth was deba ...

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

in central London from September 2022 until 2024. The sculpture, entitled ''Antelope'', restages a 1914 photograph of

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

preacher and

pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

John Chilembwe John Chilembwe (June 1871 – 3 February 1915) was a Baptist pastor, educator and revolutionary who trained as a minister in the United States, returning to Nyasaland in 1901. He was an early figure in the resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland ...

and European missionary John Chorley. Chilembwe wears a hat in an act of defiance, as it was illegal at the time for an African to wear a hat in front of a white person.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

* 2017 – ''Red Barn Farm'', Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden * 2015 – ''The Unbearable Lightness of Nyau Cinema'', Gallery U Mloka, Olomouc, Czech Republic * 2015 – ''Double Feature: Nyau Cinema'', Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany * 2014 – ''Sepia Rain'', Stevenson Johannesburg, South Africa * 2012 – ''Tattoo City: The First Three Chapters'' (with guests),

Castlefield Gallery The Castlefield Gallery is an art gallery in Manchester, England, located at 2 Hewitt Street, Knott Mill, Manchester. The gallery, a resource for contemporary visual artists The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmak ...

, Manchester, UK * 2000 – ''Holyball Exercises and Exorcisms'', Chancellor College, Zomba, Malawi

Selected group exhibitions

* 2016 –

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Every two years, the city of Liverpool hosts an extensive range of artworks, projects, and a programme of events. The biennial commissions leading ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, UK * 2016 –

Dakar Biennale The Dakar Biennale, or Dak'Art - Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain, is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Dakar, Senegal. Dak'Art's focus has been on Contemporary African Art since 1996. History T ...

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

, Senegal * 2016 – ''Lost & Found'', Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands * 2015 – '' Embodied'', Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark * 2015 – ''50/50'', New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa * 2015 – ''Transformation Marathon'',

Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

, London * 2015 – ''Schema'', Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa * 2015 – ''All The World's Futures'',

, Italy * 2014 – ''Chroma'', Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa * 2014 – Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal * 2004 – '' Bloomberg New Contemporaries'', Liverpool, UK

Bibliography

Books

* 2012 – ''Uccello's Vineyard''. ASIN: B009Z48N2Y * 2008 – ''The Jive Talker or, How to Get a British Passport''.

Articles

* 2015, ''Entering the Arena: All the World's Futures'', Art in Culture, South Korea, and Contemporary And * 2014, ''Great African Minds: Dr Charles Chanthunya'', Peter Hammer Verlag * 2013, ''The Museum and the Individual'', essay on Meschac Gaba's Museum of Contemporary African Art, Tate Modern * 2011, ''Der skurrile Diktator'', Kulturaustausch, IFA, Germany * 2010, ''Dr Albert Schweitzer's Troublesome Young Brother'', Kulturaustausch, IFA, Germany * 2010, ''Windmill Jive'', Salz Magazine, Austria * 2009, ''Action Bitte – Malawians at Leisure'', Kulturaustausch, IFA, Germany

Residencies, fellowships and awards

* 2015, Research fellowship,

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

, Washington DC, USA * 2014, Research fellowship,

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, New Haven, USA * 2013, AHRC PhD Research Award, UK * 2005–10, The Fire Station Residency, ACME, London, UK * 2004, Decibel Visual Arts Award, Arts Council * 2000, Thami Mnyele Artist Residency, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Notes and references

External links

*
Kate MacGarry: Samson Kambalu

Simon & Schuster

Contemporary And: Samson Kambalu
*

Giles Foden Giles Foden (born 11 January 1967)George Stade and Karen Karbiener (eds), ''Encyclopaedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present'', 2nd edn, Infobase Publishing, 2010, p. 176. is an English author, best known for his novel ''The Last King of S ...

"Good news from Africa", review of ''The Jive Talker''
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 23 August 2008. * Susan Williams
"The Jive Talker, by Samson Kambalu – Portrait of the artist as a young African"
(review), ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 4 July 2008. * Aminatta Forna
"Review: The Jive Talker by Samson Kambalu"
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', 10 August 2008. * Massa Lemu
"For the ranter, the whole world is a playground. In conversation with Samson Kambalu"
''Contemporary And'', 13 February 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kambalu, Samson 1975 births British artists Black British artists British conceptual artists Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Malawian artists Malawian writers Living people University of Malawi alumni Alumni of Nottingham Trent University Alumni of Kamuzu Academy 21st-century male artists