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Ruka

Ruka

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Sungi Mlengeya

Sungi Mlengeya is an emerging self-taught artist who initiated a career in business before turning to artmaking full-time in 2018. Her paintings of women are often described as minimal due to the stark contrast between the seemingly monochromatic positive space and the painted white negative space, but the skin tones of her figures are complex and variegated, containing subtle nuanced color. Rather than considering the backgrounds as blank space, the artist sees them as free space, a space of fairness, equity, and infinite possibilities: “Dreams can be achieved here” she states. “Ruka” is from a new body of work that focuses on dancers. As with her other paintings of women, Mlengaya often uses friends as models
Artist
Sungi Mlengeya
(Tanzanian, b. 1991)
Title
Ruka
Date
2021
Medium
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
55 1/4 x 78 5/8 x 1 in. overall
Credit
Sara Guyer and Scott Straus Contemporary African Art Initiative made possible by the Straus Family Foundation
Accession No.
2022.5
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Tanzania

Related

March 2022, sold by Afriart Gallery (Kampala, Uganda) to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Chazen Museum of Art. "Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection." Madison, WI: Regents to the University of Wisconsin System and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2023. pp. 5, 34-35, cat. no. 9

  • Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection: Chazen Museum of Art, 9/5/2023–12/23/2023

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