Art in Cape Town

June 2011

Art in Cape Town

Samson Cinga

There is something awkward but fascinating about the big guy with hidden face on the painted surface of Cinga’s artwork. He has a target on him that draws your eye more and more into the work. The target in the painting allows one to deliberate its accidental positioning. The multifaceted surface in Cinga’ work extends on to his personal preferences and feelings.

Cinga is a Cape Town born artist who did his primary and secondary schooling in the Eastern Cape, Umtata. He sees himself as the “true Ghetto boy”. He has been exposed to both the Ghetto township life as well as the big city life. These experiences lead him to have a very critical view on life and politics.

His artistic journey as he would say has its beginnings at the Isibane art studio in Kayelitsha. Cinga’s subject matter includes colours and forms that surround us. He sees the subject matter as a part of him. He did a basic design course as well as commercial photography at Stellenbosch Univeristy. As a disadvantaged student from Kayelitsha, he noticed the different lifestyle amongst people from different background.

Cinga works are brilliantly implemented. Their colossal sizes are intimidating yet colourful and playful. Cinga starts them of in an abstract phase. It is hard to tell how each mark, drop of paint and line landed on the surface of the painting. However Cinga insists that he makes no mistakes and that every splash is relevant. He retains some elements from the bottom layer to create a multifaceted surface. According to Cinga, “the process of creating is driven by so many emotions”. He finds himself crying through the process of which he sees as destroying the artwork. Cinga believes that his art speaks a lot about him- it is a part of him.