"Ngomibanje”, a collective art exhibition by contemporary visual artists Thierry Muhirwa (thie_mu-Hirwa) and Family Love Nduwimana (fL_art_1) kicked off in Kigali on the evening of August 12.
The exhibition which is taking place at Ipfundo Art Gallery, Kiyovu, will run until August 20.
It features 30 artworks that portray diverse themes sparked by the artists’ feelings and thoughts.
According to Muhirwa who is exhibiting 12 artworks, the idea for the exhibition came in 2021 when he and Nduwimana were still students at Ecole d’Arts de Nyundo.
When they nurtured the idea, they decided not to limit the exhibition about a particular theme hence opting to craft down their thoughts and feelings as well as their perspectives towards the community.
He explained that they decided to name the exhibition "Ngomibanje” as a way of manifesting the merit of the word "Ingoma", a drum, in the Rwandan culture and tradition, declaring that it was a high symbolic item for Rwandans since the reign of the King and served as the supremacy of the Kingdom.
"Getting this name was to trigger the attention of Rwandans and foreigners to showcase the mastery of the Rwandan artists in this generation just as "Ingoma" was meant all along,” he said.
"We also wanted to reveal what the new generation is capable of doing, proving skills and vast experience into the modern world of contemporary art.”
One of his artworks titled "My Dad's Shoe" portrays how a person craves to have something another person has and Muhirwa communicated that "it’s only a matter of time for someone to achieve what he wishes.”
His other collective artwork titled "II" portrays two animals: a dog and a cow.
"I made it to portray two lessons humans can learn from the two animals. Considering the first artwork depicting a cow itself, our motherland culture but also socially, providing hides, creamery products and so on. Furthermore, it was a symbol of wealth whereas itself can feed both the calf and a baby,” he said.
"And for a dog it has many features, the unconditional love, they are so emotional and they have an ability to be trained for any aspect and be so loyal. Being able to be trained for anything is related to us people being ambitious for a thing you fancy."
Muhirwa likes mixing colours and includes white for he despises using pure colours – something that is seen in all his artworks.
Nduwimana, his fellow, who is exhibiting 18 artworks likes using orange colour in his artworks.
He revealed that it portrays what he wants to achieve in life given that it is attained by mixing red, a colour depicting hard work and yellow, a colour depicting precious things hence to him, their mixture renders a good harvest.
Explaining one of his artworks "She's A Woman", he said that it portrays how women are phenomenal, capable of multi-tasking and energetic than other humans.
His other artwork "Orange Scarf" features a woman and a man with an orange scarf wrapped behind them.
Nduwimana considers the two as Adam and Eve and the scarf as Eden, a calm, peaceful and lovely place.
"The message I portrayed is that sometimes in life, we make mistakes and escape our happy world. While there, we have to find a way to return back to a happy state," he said.
Nduwimana and Muhirwa plan to keep working together and organise other art exhibitions in the future.