Cinga Samson

blank projects, Cape Town

Private Collection, UK

"The moon was low and very bright, it was shining on us and reflecting the white of our eyes. It remains such a strong memory that every time I work on a painting, I remember this night. The eyes of my characters remind me of this moonlight; it’s a spiritual reference.’’

Cinga Samson, Discussions with Cinga Samson, Perrotin, December 2018 (online) 

Irhorho 3 is a masterful example of Cinga Samson’s unrivaled ability to fuse the mysterious with the recognizable.  His confident painterly practice celebrates our ever-changing contemporary identity underpinned with the grounding presence of local heritage.

The present work forms part of a pivotal series of  stylized self-portraits in which the artist focuses inward, drawing on his rich personal experiences. WiIth impeccable detail, yet elusive and imbued with a ghostly quality, Samson renders himself with an impenetrable and ethereal aura. Working from sketches and photographs, Samson’s artistic process merges memory and imagination with sometimes hard realities, creating carefully conceived composites, reminiscent of Italian Renaissance portraiture. Drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources, ranging from Paul Gaugin to South African artist Peter Clarke, Samson’s elaborate draftsmanship evokes the dialectic tension between the past and the present and between the spiritual and the real. 

The black male figure that dominates the pictorial space is confident yet distant. Executed in Samson’s signature muted and somber tones, he  is characteristically incomplete, his eyes removed and replaced with glowing and hauntingly striking white orbs, a decision that the artist utilises in order to invoke a feeling of secrecy, withdrawal and holiness.  In creating his reverent figures, Samson seeks to harness an air of curiosity yet deep respect for this striking person. 

At the same time, Samson juxtaposes the figure's anonymity or inaccessibility, as well as his casual appearance, against his other-worldly and grand spirit. The figure is positioned in a stately and authoritative pose, making way for a meditation on the symbolic standing of the black male body in the canon of art history – questioning, confronting and negotiating its positioning in the white dominated visual arena.

Based in Cape Town, Cinga Samson began painting at the age of 21 after joining the Isibane Creative Arts shared studio in the township of Khayelitsha on the outskirts of Cape Town. In 2021, the artist joined the renowned White Cube Gallery and that same year enjoyed a solo show at FLAG Art Foundation in New York. In addition to numerous solo exhibitions at Perrotin and Blank Space, amongst other locations, Samson has also participated in several group exhibitions, including Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (2020) and Kubatana at Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Øvre Eiker (2019).