Visual artist Paulus Kanyanga scooped two awards at the Arts for Activism 2024 Awards. 

The event, hosted by the Office of the First Lady, recognized his exceptional talent in the visual arts category and crowned him the overall winner of the competition.

Kanyanga said the achievement holds deep personal meaning for his work. Despite facing previous setbacks in the competition, his perseverance and dedication had paid off, he added.

“This award means a lot to me because it was my first time to be selected, I believe in not giving up, and I didn’t” he said as he expressed gratitude for the recognition.

Kanyanga’s artwork was inspired by a desire to challenge societal norms and promote gender equality. “I come from a poor background where men were more supported than women. This inequality often led to gender-based violence. My artwork is a call to men to positively use their masculinity and work towards dismantling the chain of inequality,” he said.

Kanyanga infused the gender-based violence theme into his artwork because it is one of the many issues that frequently occur to women who are being subjected to abuse by fathers, sisters, mothers and daughters, etc.

His multifaceted artistic approach included the way he mixed the media (wood burning, acrylic paint, beer bottle cap) which is quite inspirational and perhaps one of his best artworks.

Mixed media is a technique that combines multiple materials or mediums to create a work of art.

“The challenge was mixing the media. The daunting task was adding a beer cap simply because I have seen friends and family ignoring the needs and wants of their children, and parents because of alcohol, which is an abuse too. 

“It was quite interesting mostly to us visual artists because most of the time we let the audience look at the artwork and find answers or the meaning of the artwork by themselves. In other words, we operate in the dark but this time we have to come into the light and explain our artwork,” he said. 

Kanyanga added that not every visual artist was comfortable with the technique but they made sure to experience it and go through something new and exciting.

His success has already inspired a lot of artists because it wasn’t easy to make it this far as a self-taught visual artist. It shows that hard work is the key to reaching one’s dreams.

“My advice is that art is therapy. In other other words it is good to reflect on things that happen to you, your family and society,” he said.

-pmukokobi@nepc.com.na