Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy
Additional images
Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy Mwilambwe Bondo, Vitshois b.1981 / Glamorous And Fairy
about this work

Vitshois’ portrait heads are composed of many faces, hands, and indeterminate body parts excised from glossy style magazines that he collects around the world; this globalized commercial printed matter has been reconfigured into exquisite composite beings of all shades of skin, hair, and eye color, into likenesses of perfect synthesized beings of multiple races, genders, and appearances - perfect cyborgs, that are indeed ideal self images of our times.  

Abstract backgrounds of the paintings - sometimes flatly dark, other times blank and stained with painterly elements -emphasize the tension between the generic and the singular, print and paint, figure and background. Vitshois’ dis-engendered figures exemplify a self-image comprised of de personalized, objectified bodies of fashion plates - synthetic, mediated selves, as it were; on the other hand, the use of this ready made imagery as material redeems them, as fashion plates are recycled into paintings, installations, and performances. Vitshois' body of work comprises fractured identities and multiple geographies, contradictory locations and heterochronic calendars - yet this multiplicity is amalgamated into a significant formal entity that can travel in style across borders and without a passport.  

Sandra Skurvida  

 

Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo (b.1981, Democratic Republic of the Congo )

Glamorous And Fairy , 2014

Acrylic and collage on canvas
2 Pieces Each: 140 x 100 cm
2 Pieces Each: 55 1/8 x 39 3/8 in.
Provenance:
Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy  Current Location:
UK - London - Brinks PaintingAfrica

publications

Sotheby's, Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary African Art
Sotheby's (Catalogue), May 16 2017
View Publication »

Contemporary african art
primae noctis art gallery (Catalogue), October 2014

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