The Collection

Ian Mwesiga is a Ugandan painter whose richly colored, figurative canvases explore the intersections of memory, identity, and imagination. His portraits of Black subjects draw from the culture of his native Uganda while resonating with broader conversations around postcolonial life and Black figuration. Balancing lyricism and precision, his compositions skew ordinary perspective, creating dreamlike scenes where the psychological and the physical coalesce.

Influenced by artists such as Malick Sidibé and Kerry James Marshall, Mwesiga rejects the rigid realism taught in academic training, instead developing a style that celebrates the fullness of Black life. His paintings often reference his own photographs, as well as cultural markers ranging from 1970s textiles to 1990s gadgets. The resulting works serve as capsules of collective and personal memory while envisioning progressive narratives of identity.

Recent solo exhibitions include Beyond the Edge of the World (The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, 2024), Au service des rêves (Mariane Ibrahim, Paris, 2025), and Theater of Dreams (Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago, 2022). He has also participated in group exhibitions such as When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting (Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, 2023; Kunstmuseum Basel, 2024; BOZAR, Brussels, 2025). His work is held in collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Mwesiga received his BA in Industrial Fine Art and Design from Makerere University (2014). He has participated in residencies at Àsìkò Art School (Mozambique, 2015) and CCA Lagos (Nigeria), and is a recipient of the Goethe-Institut’s Moving Africa Award (2014).