Samson Kambalu
Work inquiryGallery exhibition
Painted States (087)About the artist
Samson Kambalu (b. 1975 in Malawi) lives and works in Oxford, United Kingdom.
The Oxford based artist and author Samson Kambalu works in a variety of media, including site-specific installation, video, performance and literature. His work is autobiographical and approaches art as an arena for critical thought and sovereign activities. His basic influences are Situationism, the Nyau prestation social structures of his native Malawi and the Protestant tradition of inquiry, criticism and dissent.
His work has been widely covered by international media including BBC, Frieze, The Solo Adventurer, Mousse Magazine and Biennale Arte.
Education
2011-2016
PhD, CCA, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK
2002-2003
MA Fine Art, NTU, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
1995-1999
BA, Fine Art and Ethnomusicology, UNIMA, University of Malawi, Malawi
Solo Exhibitions
2021
Fracture Empire, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal
Fracture Republic, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, SE
Fractured Mission, Magdalen College Old Library, Oxford, UK
Beni, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
New Liberia, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
Black Jack, Southbank, London, UK
2020
Nyau Cinema, Cable Club, British Council Collection, online exhibition
Postcards from the Last Century, Peer, London, UK
2019
Dallas Medianale 2019, The MAC, Dallas, US
Nyasaland Analysand, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2018
Graphomania, The James Gallery, The Graduate Centre, CUNY, New York, US
2017
Wounded Negatives, Zietz Mocca, Cape Town, South Africa
Ghost Dance, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town South Africa
Nyau Western: American Psychogeographicals, Art Basel Statements, Switzerland
Red Barn Farm, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, SE
2016
Nyau Cinema (Black Maria), NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Miami US
Introduction to Nyau Cinema, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Capsules, Mountains and Forts, Kate MacGarry, London, UK
2015
The Unbearable Lightness of Nyau Cinema, Gallery U Mloka, Olomouc, Czech Republic
2014
Sepia Rain, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
Tattoo City: The First Three Chapters (with guests), Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
2009
Roseanne, Sai Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2004
Holyball Exercises and Exorcisms, Usher Gallery, Lincoln
2001
The Gideons’ Room, Winston Hotel, Amsterdam, NL
2000
Exercise IV, Thami Mnyele Foundation,, Amsterdam, NL
Holyball Exercises and Exorcisms, Chancellor College, Zomba, Malawi
Group Exhibitions
2021
Eclipse, Athens Biennale, Athens, GR
Bold Black British, curated by Aindrea Emelife, Christie’s, London, UK
Fourth Plinth Shortlist Exhibition, National Gallery, London, UK
Light the Night, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US
We are Here: Artists Moving Image from the British Council Collection – Songs from a Forgotten Past, Centro Centro, Madrid, ES
2020
Fotofest Biennial – African Cosmologies, Houston, Texas, US
History Without A Past – with Vincent Meessen of Venice 2015 Belgian Pavilion, Mu.ZEEE, Ostend, Belgium
Happy, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US
2019
Pierrick Sorin and Samson Kambalu film screenings, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
African Cosmologies, Dallas Media Fest, Dallas, Texas, US
2018
African Metropolis, curated by Simon Njami, Maxxi, Rome, IT
2017
The Art of Dissonance, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea
The Public Body, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Afriques Capitales/Capital Africas, curated by Simon Njami, La Villette, Paris, FR
Cinema Mon Armour, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Summer Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Qalandiya International Biennale, Haifa, Gaza, London, Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, Ramallah & Bethlehem
Retrogarde, The Rogan Centre, University of Chicago, US
Detail is All, Kunsthalle Mainz, DE
Dakar Biennale, Senegal
Liverpool Biennial, UK
Art Festival Watou, Belgium
Lost & Found, Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
2015-2021
Lumieres d’Afriques, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris; Donwahi Foundation, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Institut Fondamental D’Afrique Noire, Dakar, Senegal; Palais des Nations, Geneva; Africa Union’s Headquarters, Addis Ababa; EUMESTAT, Darmstadt, Germany; Mohammed VI Museum, Rabat, Morocco; Johannesburg, South Africa
2015
Embodied, Nikolaj, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, DK
50/50, New Church Museum, Cape Town
Drawing Biennial, London, UK
Transformation Marathon, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
Schema, Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa
All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Venice, IT
2014
Chroma, Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa
Dakar Biennial, Senegal
Nyau!, Espace D’art Contemporain, Porrentury, Switzerland
2013-2014
The Book Lovers, Artist novels project, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; De Appel, Amsterdam; Cricoteka, Krakow
2009
Tokyo International Art Festival, Tokyo, Japan
Dialogue Among Nations, Art for Humanity, South Africa, (Part of FIFA World Cup 2010)
2008
Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan
The Mausoleum of Lost Objects, NIVA, London, UK
Next We Change Earth, The New Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2006
Hinterland, Nottingham, UK
Ballkünstler, (Part of FIFA World Cup 2006), Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, Germany. Artists included Kendall Geers, Greg Colson and Wim Delvoye.
The Beautiful Game, Brooklyn Institute of Contemporary Arts, US
2004
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2004, The Barbican, London, UK
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2004, Liverpool Biennial, UK
One Step Beyond, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, UK
2003
Guess Who, Stedelijk Museum, Zwolle, NL
Black My Story, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere, The Netherlands. (Artists included Jimmie Durham, Remy Jungeman, Shirana Shahbazi and Chikako Watanabe)
Awards, Grants, Residencies
2021
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, UK
Fourth Plinth Commission 2022-24, UK
TORCH Oxford, Knowledge Exchange Fellowship, UK
John Fell Award, New Liberia, Modern Art Oxford, UK
John Fell Award, Fourth Plinth maquette 2020, London Mayor’s Fourth Plinth, UK
2016
Artist residency, Headlands Centre for the Arts, San Francisco, US
2014
Research fellowship, Yale Centre for British Art, US
2013
Adler Entrepreneurship Award, DE
AHRC PhD Research Award, UK
2010
Artlink, Performative reading book tour award, Switzerland
Schloss Elmau Writer-in-Residence, Bavaria, Germany
Rauris Literature Festival Honoured Guest, Austria
Jive Talker Winner of National Book Tokens Global Reads, UK
Arts Council Writing Grant for Tattoo City, UK
Society of Authors Writing Grant, London for Tattoo City, UK
2006
The Fritschy Award Nominee, NL
2005
2005–2010, ACME, The Fire Station Residency, UK
2004
Decibel Visual Arts Award (Arts Council), UK
The Arts Council Exhibition Grant (Holyballism, The Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham), UK
Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Selectors: Kate Bush, Dinos Chapman, Tacita Dean, Brian Griffiths., UK
2000
The Thami Mnyele Artist Residency, Amsterdam, NL
Film
2021
A Game of War: Sanguinetti v Kambalu Trial at Ostend, in collaboration with Twee-eiige Drieling and Mu.Zee. Screenings followed by discussion at the Vredegerecht Oostende and Rechtbank Antwerpen, BE
2019
2019 The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, BBC, Netflix (Actor, translator, and consultant)
Publications Authored by the Artist
2022
2022 More Lasting than Bronze, contributor and editor, Harvard University Press, US
2016
2016 Nyau Cinema, in Liverpool Biennale catalogue, The Two-Sided Lake, UK
2014
2014 Great African Minds: Dr Charles Chanthunya, published by Peter Hammer Verlag, DE
2013
The Museum and the Individual, essay on Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art, commissioned by Tate Modern, UK
2012
Uccello’s Vineyard (a novel)
2011
Der skurrile Diktator (A review of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The Wizard of the Crow), published Kalturaustausch, IFA, DE
2010
Dr Albert Schweitzer’s Troublesome Young Brother, Kulturaustausch, IFA, October 2010, Germany
Windmill Jive, Salz Magazine, April 2010, Austria
2009
Action Bitte – Malawians at Leisure, Kulturaustausch, IFA, August 2009, Germany
2008
The Jive Talker (autobiographical novel), published by Jonathan Cape, UK; Simon and Schuster, USA; Unionsverlag, Germany
Publications on the Artist's Work
2021
African Artists: From 1882 to Now, Phaidon, London, UK
2020
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and the Other, Mark Sealy, Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, NL
2018
The Artists Who Will Change the World,, Omar Kholeif, Thames and Hudson, London, UK
2017
Afriques Capitales/Capital Africas, Simon Njami, Kehrer, Heidelberg, DE
Cinema Mon Armour: Kino in der Kunst/Film in Art, Madeleine Schuppli, Kunsthaus Aargauer, Scheidegger & Spiess, Aarau, CH
2015
Embodied, Jacqui Davis, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, DK
All the World’s Futures, Okwui Enwezor, Venice Biennale 2015, IT
2014
Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s, Eddie Chambers, IB Tauris, London, UK
Nyau Cinema, Stevenson Gallery, South Africa
2011
Atelier Gesprache, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner, Verlag Anton Pustet, AT
2010
Southern African Travel Guide, recommendation by Lonely Planet Publications
Malawi and Zambia Travel Guide, recommendation by Lonely Planet Publications
2009
Artsadmin 30th Anniversary, Artsadmin, London, UK
2008
Next We Change Earth, The New Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2006
The Bradt Travel Guide to Malawi, recommendation by Phillip Briggs
Ballkünstler, Museum der Bildenden Kunste Leipzig, DE
2004
Museum de Paviljoens: Journal of a Building 1992-2004, the Museum de Paviljoens, NL
2003
Black My Story, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere, NL
Exedra, by Phillip Van De Bossche
Public Collections
The UK Government Art Collection, UK
British Council Art Collection, UK
Tate Modern, UK
NSU Art Museum, US
Bury Museum of Art, UK
Magasin III – Museum of Contemporary Art, Stockholm, SE
Kunsthalle Hamburg, DE
Contemporary Art Society and private collections
Wed-Fri: 10:00 – 17:00
Sat: 11:00 – 15:00
Sun-Tue: Closed