Zemba Luzamba
Zemba Luzamba Zemba Luzamba

Zemba Luzamba

b. 1973, Lubumbashi; Lives in Cape Town.
Luzamba’s paintings have covered as much ground as he has travelled. Starting with works chronicling the hardships experienced by migrants, Luzamba went on to produce vivid images of the leisure spaces occupied by these communities. As well as this, his works reflect on power relations arising through gender and social class, and Congolese histories – both grand narratives, and the conditions of ordinary life.

“Zemba Luzamba merges images with ideas”, CNN African voices, 2018

Art Education

2018: ASAI Print Access Workshop, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
2015: ASAI In Print, Print Access Workshop Series, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town.
1993: Institut Technique d’Art Plastique (ITAP), Democratic Republic of Congo.
1994 - 1998: Diploma, Fine Art, Evelyn Home College of Applied Art & Commerce, Lusaka.

Solo Exhibitions

2023: Folk Ritual. Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin.
2023: Kitendi. Galerie Studer, Dubai
2023: Totem. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town
2022: In the Name of….Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London.
2019: Connexion. EBONY/CURATED Cape Town.
2017: Deja Vu. 5th Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi, DR Congo
2017: In The South – Paintings from 2004-2017. Stellenbosch University Museum,
Stellenbosch
2016: Genesis. EBONY/CURATED. Franschhoek.
2015: It is What It Is. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2014: Exhibition. EBONY/ CURATED, Cape Town.
2013: La Sape. Association of Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town.
2012: La Sape. Association of Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town.
2005: Hope for Refugees, Rome.
2004: Exhibition, Association for Visual Art Gallery, Cape Town.

Group Exhibitions (South Africa)

2022: When We See Us: a century of black figurative in painting. Zeitz Museum of
Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town.
2021: A Very Loop Street Summer. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2021: Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, FNB Art Joburg, Open City,
Johannesburg.
2021: 8 by 8. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2021: Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Virtual Representation, EBONY/CURATED,
Cape Town.
2021: In [the] Loop. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2020: FNB Art Joburg online edition, Main Booth, Johannesburg
2019: A Smaller Scale. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2019: Investec Cape Town Art Fair. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2018: The Summer Exhibition. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2017: From the Horse’s Mouth. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2016: Beyond Binaries. Essence Festival, Durban.
2015: That Art Fair. Cape Town.
2015: In Print/In Focus. Michealis Galleries, Cape Town.
2014: Inner Nature. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2014: Emergence. EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2013: First Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town.
2013: Perspectives & Dramascapes with Wycliffe Mundopa, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town.
2013: Association for Visual Art Gallery. Cape Town.
2008: Soul of Africa, Development Bank of South Africa, Johannesburg.
2007: Africa South, Association for Visual Art (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town.
2007: Blank Projects, Cape Town.
2007: Sanlam Gallery. Baxter Theatre, Cape Town.
2006: A Journey Together, Voyage Ensemble, Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town.
2006: Picasso and Africa, Alliance Francaise, Cape Town.
2005: Il Pezo Politico Dei Migranti, Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town.
2003: Xenophobia, Alliance Francaise, Cape Town.

Group Exhibitions (International)

2023: Where the Wild Roses Grow. Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne.
2023: You Look Hard Enough You Can See Our Future. African American Museum,
Dallas.
2023: Tomorrow is Tomorrow is Tomorrow. Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London.
2022: Shout Plenty, the African Artists Foundation, Lagos.
2022: AAGA Annual African Galleries Now online edition powered by Artsy, Africa
2022:Untitled Miami Beach. with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Miami.
2021: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. EBONY/CURATED booth, London.
2021: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. (Virtual Representation) EBONY/CURATED, New York.
2020: Intersect Chicago online edition of SOFA Expo, Chicago
2019: AKAA (Also Known As Africa), Art and Design Fair, Paris.
2013: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London.
2011: Art for Africa Auction, Sotheby’s, New York.
2008: Harare International Festival of Arts, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare.
2005: Il Pezo Politico Dei Migranti, Santa Mostre Sangallo, Piacenza.
1996: P.E.L (Agricultural company art patron), Lusaka.
1995: Visual Art Council, Lusaka.

Publications

2019: Kirsty Cockerill, 'Dress Code: the politics of dress, oppression and self-determination in the works of Zemba Luzamba', Africa South Art Initiative (ASAI)
2015: The Guardian Newspaper (25/03), Financial Times, London 
2015: Anna Stielau,''It Is What It Is': Zemba Luzamba at EBONY', Art Africa, South Africa 
2015: Danny Shorkend, 'Luzamba's 'Inexpressive disutopia'',
2010: Mario Pissarra, 'Migrant Perspectives: The Art of Zemba Luzamba', Critical Interventions, 4:1, 102 - 107.
2005: South African Art Diary.

Commissions

2009: Nandos, London.
2002: New Royal Hotel, Blantyre, Malawi.

Collections

Cultures Inc., California.
Scalabrini House (Bassano Del Grappa), Cape Town.
Nandos, London.
Private collections: Italy, United States of America, South Africa.

Links

It Is What It Is – Ebony Gallery, Cape Town 2015. Exhibition catalogue.
Zemba-Catalogue1

Migrant Perspectives: The Art of Zemba Luzamba – essay by Mario Pissarra
CI Zemba

“Voyage Ensemble, A Journey Together” , Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town 2007. Exhibition booklet.
“Voyage Ensemble, A Journey Together” , Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town 2007. Exhibition booklet. Zemba

“Voyage Ensemble, A Journey Together” , Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town 2006.
“Voyage Ensemble, A Journey Together” , Scalabrini Centre, Cape Town 2006 - Zemba

Khanyisile Mawhayi, Zemba Luzamba: Postcolonial identities in motion(ASAI, 2021)

Kirsty Cockerill, Dress Code: the politics of dress, oppression and self-determination in the works of Zemba Luzamba, (ASAI, 2019).


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