Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga
Lives & Works in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Brussels, Belgium
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga has gained international attention for his art. He has been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts, amongst other renowned public galleries and institutions. Kamuanga explores the seismic shifts in the economic, political, and social identity of the Democratic Republic of Congo that have taken place since colonialism. His large-scale figurative compositions possess great depth of historical understanding, with a striking and sophisticated interplay of the intensity of space juxtaposed with emptiness. In his latest series ‘Ghost of the Present’, his works display symbolic objects from the colonial and missionary eras; Belgian lace cloths, brick screens, checked uniforms, wicker chairs, contrasting with the yellow-bound Luba sculpture of the sacred earth-mother and brightly coloured African textile. In 2022, Rizzoli published an extensive monograph on the artist. His works are held in important private and public collections including: Zeitz MOCAA; the Hood Museum of Art; Pizzuti Collection; the Norval Foundation and the Scheryn Art Collection. Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga will be presented by October Gallery. 
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Buana mbutuku buila (Childhood is a Dark Night), 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 180 x 207 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and October Gallery.

Artists 2023