Samson Kambalu (born 1975) is a

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

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

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

at the

University of Malawi The University of Malawi (UNIMA) is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whethe ...

's Chancellor College. He is a Fellow of

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

Life and work

Kambalu was born in Malawi, where he attended

Kamuzu Academy Kamuzu Academy is a private boarding school in Kasungu, 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 of Africa". History The school ...

, 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 located in Nottingham, England. Its origins date back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Design, Nottingham Government School of Design, which still opera ...

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, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, prod ...

, 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 and the

Chewa Chewa may refer to: *the Chewa people *the Chewa language Chewa ( ; also known as Nyanja ) is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for lang ...

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 people, forming the cosm ...

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. Enwezor served as artistic director of several major exhibitions, including Documenta11 (2002) and th ...

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

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. 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 ...

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 imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

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

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

). 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 Shanghai ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. 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 of the United Kingdom, William IV, but remained empty due to lack of funds. For over 150 years, ...

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

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

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

preacher and

pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a nationalist movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Sa ...

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. Since its launch in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 380 new artworks and presented work by over 530 artists from around the world. ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 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 ...

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

, 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, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...

, 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 New Contemporaries is an organisation in the UK that works to support emerging artists at the beginning of their careers by introducing them to the visual arts sector and to the public through a variety of platforms, including an annual exhibit ...

'', 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, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

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 Washington, D.C., United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African ar ...

, Washington DC, USA * 2014, Research fellowship,

Yale Center for British Art The Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in central New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare ...

, 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 ...

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

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 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 Aminatta Forna is a British writer of Scottish and Sierra Leonean ancestry. Her first book was a memoir, '' The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest'' (2002). Since then she has written four novels: '' Ancestor Stones'' (2006), ...

"Review: The Jive Talker by Samson Kambalu"
''

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

'', 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 21st-century Malawian writers Living people University of Malawi alumni Alumni of Nottingham Trent University Alumni of Kamuzu Academy 21st-century male artists