Ssuuna Frank

Ssuuna’s artworks have been featured on the Omushana clothing line based in Washington DC. He also exhibited his artworks in several galleries, including Kako Gallery in New Orleans in 2020 and a group show in Brooklyn, New York, titled “Facing It Together.” And he is currently represented by Masaka Gallery in Plot 12 Birch Avenue, Masaka.

Artist statement

Human and music, 2022

Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

Biography

Ssuuna Frank born 1996 in Masaka town, Central Uganda. He was interested in drawing and creating from an early age, and in 2018, he started painting with acrylics. Painting helped him escape the negative perceptions in our society associated with youth who are not employed outside creative fields. In 2019, he met Masaka-based visual artist Joe Bukenya (Las Palmas Art Gallery), who gave him the opportunity to share a studio with him. This introduced him to contemporary art, and he experimented even more with color and form in his paintings and collages.

Being mentored by Ugandan international mixed media artist Collin Sekajugo helped him master his art style and learn more about the contemporary art world. American visual artist Keith Oelschlager also inspired him. As a self-taught visual artist, he created an art center called “Olympusy Arts Masaka” to give other creatives a chance to manifest their talents.

Ssuuna’s artistic practice is focused on ruminating on daily existence, culture, and the history of humankind and its surroundings. Through observation, he try to depict the things and thoughts he observed, rendering these observations as beauty. He experiment with many artistic mediums, but his particularly keen on painting and collage. He merge the two mediums to create his artworks, and his latest works are inspired by the timbre of traditional music instruments, deeply ingrained in our African culture and modern music.

Instagram: @ssuuna_f

My boombox, 2022

Mixed media on canvas, 60 x 60 cm