TOP 15 – LONGLISTED 2022 Artist: Olivia Mary Nantongo
Title: Acceptance
Medium: Mixed Media
Size: 53cm x 120cm
Year: 2022
Born in January 1994, Olivia Mary Nantongo is a full-time artist based in Kampala, Uganda. She holds a Bachelor of Industrial and Fine Arts degree from Makerere University, Uganda. Her art is mostly characterised by the use of acrylics, oil paint, pastels, fabric and other material.
“We live in a society where women are going through tough self-love problems, for example body changes, skin colour and the quest for fame and attention. Where most dark-skinned women and girls are ridiculed for how they look like and they are forced to do in imaginable things to themselves just to fit in. As an individual, I have experienced this kind of trauma and so, I use my art to encourage women and girls to accept themselves for who and what they are.
In my art, I love to capture mundane things, the beauty of objects and people’s expressions, especially women. I want my art to breathe life into a long-forgotten culture, give life to society, capture it in all its glory and create beauty using ruins of random objects.” – Olivia Mary Nantongo
Email: Nantongooliviamary@gmail.com
