Moridja Kitenge Banza
Born1980
Kinshasa, Congo
EducationAcadémie des beaux-arts de Kinshasa ; École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole
Known forVisual art
AwardsSobey Art Award
Acrylic painting by Banza

Moridja Kitenge Banza is a visual artist born in Kinshasa, Congo in 1980. He currently lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. His artworks employ a variety of media  including drawing, painting, photography and installation.[1]

He graduated from the Académie des beaux-arts de Kinshasa and l’École supérieure des beaux-arts de Nantes Métropole.[2] In 2010, Moridja Kitenge Banza was awarded the first prize at the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, DAK’ART in Sénégal. He was among the winners of the 2020 Sobey Art Award.[3][4] His work is represented by Hugues Charbonneau Art Gallery in Montréal.[5]

Artistic approach

Banza's artistique practice extends to a variety of media including painting, photography, film, drawing, collage, installation and performance. This diversity also reflects the plurality of identities of the artists himself.  His work uses different artistic strategies of staging, appropriation and irony to critically approach issues around memory, culture and history.[6]

Artworks

The artworks of Banza are represented in various collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as several corporate  art collections including the TD Bank Corporate Art Collection and the Bank of Montréal Collection.[7][5]

Christ Pantocrator series (2017-)

The Christ Pantocrator work forms a series of paintings that superimpose representations of African masks over images of Byzantine Christian iconography of Christ Pantocrator.  Through this work, Kitenge Banza combines traditional religious aspects of Congolese beliefs with Christianity.[8] The paintings in the series divert the sacred symbols to reveal the colonial process that led to the theft of African ritual objects by Western museums, as well as the exploitation of these objects in the context of modern art.[6]

Authentique series (2017-)

The photographs in the series Authentique feature the artist staging himself in his Montréal backyard, with works in the Christ Pantocrator series decorated with colored wax fabric.

Critical interpretation of these compositions have viewed this series as a commentary on the complex cultural identities in which immigrant populations must navigate, as well as a critical look at contemporary and historical representations of African identity.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage. "Artists in Canada". app.pch.gc.ca. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  2. ↑ "Moridja Kitenge Banza | OBORO". www.oboro.net. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  3. ↑ "Sobey Art Award 2020 – Quebec". www.gallery.ca. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  4. ↑ "Amid COVID-19, Sobey Art Award to give $25K to each longlisted artist | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  5. 1 2 "Moridja Kitenge Banza". Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  6. 1 2 3 Dubois, Anne-Marie (2019). "Moridja Kitenge Banza". Esse Arts + Opinions (in French) (97): 84–87. ISSN 0831-859X.
  7. ↑ "Coup double pour Moridja Kitenge Banza". La Presse (in French). 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  8. ↑ Mbongo., Horcelie Sinda Wa (2021-01-21). "Moridja Kitenge Banza - Top Contemporary Art Stories |". MoMAA | African Modern Online Art Gallery & Lifestyle. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
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