Hunting Kazumbi 2013

Here is Manuela Sambo's painting, Hunting Kazumbi, made with a very particular and beautiful vision. The artist has constructed a scene with flat planes of colour, like amber and red, which seem to push against each other creating a tension on the surface of the canvas. The protagonist, a female figure, with her dog, is not quite here and not quite there. There is something quite magical about the artist’s way of articulating her personal vision. The dog is rendered with care, its outline emphasized to give form. It's as if Sambo takes a line for a walk. I wonder what the artist was thinking when she applied the dark lines of ink to the figure, mapping and remapping her relationship to the spirit of the body. The colour scheme and the overall atmosphere are reminiscent of Paula Modersohn-Becker's paintings. I'd like to think that all these artists are in ongoing conversation.