Born in 1986 in Cape Town, South Africa
Lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
Educated in a shared art studio of South African painters in his early twenties, soon after deciding to dedicate his life to art, Cinga Samson has recently established himself as an important new voice in contemporary painting. His oil works on canvas manifest echoes of what he describes as the superstitions and spirituality integral to his upbringing in the town of Ethembeni and its surrounding countryside. Desire, aspiration, and celebration of identity drive much of his work, for which he draws inspiration from fashion, heritage, and the works of Paul Gauguin and Andrew Wyeth, among others. Samson’s process incorporates the use of sketches and photo shoots; he carefully selects elements within a composition to be replaced with others in order to achieve a sensual equilibrium between the real, the imagined, and the accentuated. The recipient of the 2017 Tollman Award for the Visual Arts, he exhibited at the Armory Show, New York, in 2018.
solo shows
2019
NaluLwandle, NaliKhaya, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
Safari Fantasy, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Ubugqoboka Magqoboka, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Thirty Pieces of Silver, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
Rusting Iron, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
group shows
2019
Kubatana, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Øvre Eiker
Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
2018
Umthamo, Maitland Institute, Cape Town, South Africa
Open agenda, blank projects, Cape Town
Hacer Noche, Centro Cultural Santo Domingo, Oaxaca de Juarez
blank, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin
2017
17, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
A Painting Today, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Figure, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Furniture, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2013
In the night I remember, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2012
Our Fathers, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
STRATA, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa
awards
2017
Tollman Award
Residencies + workshops
2015
Popty Bach, Llanfihangel-ar-Arth, Wales, United Kingdom
2006
Isibane Creative Arts, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa