Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga explores the seismic shifts in the economic, political and social identity of the Democratic Republic of Congo that have taken place since colonialism. Increasingly globalized, there is a sense in the DRC that some of its people are rejecting its heritage, a conflict that fuels Kamuanga Ilunga’s work. His subjects, with bare skin replaced by electronic circuitry, reference the components of modern devices, technology that could not exist without coltan, a substance mined in the DRC with human and environmental cost.

His work has been exhibited at Frist Art Museum, Tennessee; Kunsthaus, Graz; Saatchi Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. His work is in private and public collections including the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus; Zeitz Collection of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; the Private Collection of Laurence Graff OBE and the Norval Foundation, Cape Town.