Pierre Mukeba 'Black Emotion' 2021

Mukeba's first drawings and paintings were made on bed sheets from a small table in his bedroom. In Black Emotion, he lets go of the perfectly manipulated image to explore a personal emotional journey of a relationship breakdown through the simple, uninhibited material of black charcoal on paper. With an intensity of feeling and a freedom of movement, these raw, charged works are direct and pure expressions of the artists hand: textured, layered rhythms on paper.⁠

Taking the viewer to the edge of both personal and collective pain through the lens of personal memory, the extraordinary experiences and people of his childhood in the Congo also emerge, dream-like. Born in Bukeva, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, seeking asylum in Australia in 2006, Mukeba weaves the stories of two cultures, from a place of both memory and imagination.

Touching on themes of brutality, violence, political and economic unrest as well as representations of Africans in contemporary culture, his potent and unique voice stirs emotion, weaving stories of the African diaspora, the refugee crisis, displacement and trauma from war into the fabric of Australia. With a poetic vibrancy and a technically astute drawing ability in Black Emotion Mukeba allows multiple-viewpoints and varied perspectives, both thematically and visually, to act as a medium between dream and reality, myth and narrative. Within the liminal world of positive and negative space, his audience are faced with the brutal truths of existence whilst simultaneously transporting them to a realm of magic, where they find at the artworks core, humanities ability to love and heal.

Mukeba was born in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, fleeing the Civil War to Zambia then Zimbabwe before seeking Asylum to Adelaide, Australia where he has resided since 2006. Mukeba has no formal art education and learnt how to create art as a refugee in Zimbabwe taught by his uncle and influenced by his grandfather who was a renowned artist in the Congo.⁠

• Opening reception: Thursday, 17 June 6pm -8pm.⁠

• Exhibition dates: 17 June - 17 July 2021.⁠

As numbers for the opening reception are limited,⁠ please secure your ticket via the Eventbrite link.⁠

Black Emotion is Mukeba's first exhibition with the gallery.