User:Mwamba-Salim Wilson

Mwamba-Salim Wilson (September 29, 1980) is an American [[artist He began as an graffiti artist in Houston, TX. in the late 1990s and evolved into an acclaimed Primitive Abstract and Primitivist painter by the 2000. Throughout his career Mwamba-Salim focused on the primitivism abstrsct movement and such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience, poetry, drawing and painting, which married text and image, abstraction and figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. Mwamba-Salim's paintings also attacked power structures and systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle.

Contents
 * 1 Early life
 * 2 Career
 * 3 Artistic styles ◦3.1 Representing his heritage in his art
 * 4 Exhibitions
 * 5 Legacy
 * 6 References

Early life
You could say Mwamba-Salim spent half of his life in Louisiana on a farm near Eunice, Opelousas, Lafayette in Church Point at his grandmother home, running after cow's, pig's, riding horses, looking up at the clouds and the so many star's. The Cajun is deep in his blood. On the other side of that was Houston 3th., ward a place of run down home's, destitution, and poverty a day to day struggle just to survive, growing up in an home where he did'nt know if you was going to eat that day. HE took from that experience just live life and when you or put in a situation to make your dreams come alive do it, and approach it as an opportunity to increase your good qualities. In Mwamba-Salim's art its not about justifying his work or making it seem more important then what it is, to me its about understanding his self and making his dreams hit the reality of the world.

Career
The Dreams collection Mwamba-Salim is interred in history of Kings

Artistic styles
Acrylic and mixed media/Primitive Abstract on canvas and Wood Mwamba-Salim canon revolves around single heroic figures: prophets, warriors, cops, musicians, kings and the artist himself. In these images the head is often a central focus, topped by crowns, hats. In this way the intellect is emphasized, lifted up to notice, privileged over the body and the physicality of these figures black men commonly represent in the world.

Representing his heritage in his art Like a MC., Mwamba-Salim adeptly reworked Neo-Expressionism's clichéd language of gesture, freedom, and angst and redirected Pop art's strategy of appropriation to produce a body of work that at times celebrated black culture First Ambition: To be King First Artistic Ambition: Cartoonist

Early Themes Were

 * Build a house on the bottom of the sea
 * Wars
 * Poetry
 * Weapons
 * Muhammad Ali
 * Power
 * Shrine of the Black Madonna
 * Religion
 * History
 * Broken Glass

Exhibitions

 * Mwamba-Salim first public exhibition was in the Houston KUMA House in 1996, exhibition was in mixed media,
 * Gallery 19, Houston, TX.=1997,
 * Simpson Galleries Auction House, Houston, TX.=1998,
 * The Shrine of the Blick Madonna, Houston, TX.=1999,
 * Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX.=2000,
 * Lawndale Art Ceter, Houston TX.= 2001,
 * 500X Gallery, Dallas, TX.=2002,
 * Guildhall Art Gallery, London, UK.=2003,
 * YOD Gallery, Osaka, Japan =2004,
 * Bryce Hudson Studios, Louisville, KY.=2005,
 * Twist Art Gallery, Nashville, TN.=2006,
 * Austin Museum of Art: Art House, Austin TX.=2007,
 * Treehouse Art Collective, Corpus Christi, TX.=2008 ,
 * First Friday ArtWalk Corpus Christi, TX.=2008,
 * Robert Hughes Gallery, San Antonio, TX.=2009,
 * The Classic Theatre & Art Space, San Antonio, TX.=2010,
 * First Friday's Art Event's, San Antonio, TX.=2011,
 * Jump-Start Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, TX.=2012,
 * Go-Brooklyn Screwball Space, Brooklyn, NY.=2012

Legacy
"Mwamba-Salim speaks articulately while dodging the full impact of clarity like a Orchestra Conductor. We can read his pictures without strenuous effort—the words, the images, the colors and the construction—but we cannot quite fathom the point they belabor. Keeping us in this state of half-knowing, of mystery-within-familiarity, had been the core technique of his brand of communication since his adolescent days as the Primitive Abstract. To enjoy them, we are not meant to analyze the pictures too carefully. Quantifying the encyclopedic breadth of his research certainly results in an interesting inventory, but the sum cannot adequately explain his pictures, which requires an effort outside the purview of iconography ... he painted a calculated incoherence, calibrating the mystery of what such apparently meaning-laden pictures might ultimately mean.

Collections
By Mwamba-Salim Wilson “Art was born in a corner of my soul.” Mwamba-Salim Wilson never thought he would one day be able to express himself in an artistic matter. It wasn’t until he felt a need to liberate himself from the thoughts and dreams that he was keeping to himself that his artistic path started. Mixed media is his choice of medium. Most of the surfaces of his pieces are found old doors or huge wood panels. Wilson’s use of color blocks and glossy paints produces a flat and graphic composition that is interestingly broken down by the reliefs in the door panels. Wilson’s work hints Folk Art and Jean-Michel Basquiat. However, because he is using high gloss paints, his work seems to rethink the artist in a contemporary manner. Text also plays an important role in his work. He writes phrases and memories of dreams that move around the pieces, which turns the circular motion of lines in the pieces into more mechanical lines. The sentences are quite abstract and some of them are rich with fantastic metaphors. The main intention of the artist is to express his dreams. He calls his work “living dreams” and states that his dreams matter highly in his life, and pays really good attention to them by expressing them in an abstract yet literal way. He says: “My art is about justifying my work or making it seem more important than what it is. To me it’s about understanding myself and making my dreams reality. I would say my art is primitive, colorful, and abstract.” Mwamba-Salim’s work is now on display at Jump Start Performance Co. located at Blue Star Art Complex. In my opinion Mwamba-Salim Wilson is one of the greatest abstract artists of his generation.