Mustafa Maluka


Mustafa Maluka is an artist and cultural analyst. He is known for theatrically confronting the intersection of contemporary critical theory and global politics with his provocative large-scale portraits.
He grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, but came of age in Amsterdam, the Netherlands where he studied at De Ateliers postgraduate art institute and the Amsterdam School for Cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam. He currently lives and works in Finland.

biography

Maluka's work has appeared in several international exhibitions such as the 27th São Paulo Bienal in Brazil,"World Histories" at Des Moines Art Centre, Iowa and "Flow" at the Studio Museum in Harlem.Mustafa Maluka studied at De Ateliers art institute and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and lived in Berlin and New York.  He now lives and works in Turku, Finland. He has been included in international group exhibitions at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Des Moines Art Center, the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle and the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu. He is part of the collections of Kamel Lazaar Foundation and Sindika Dokolo Foundation among others. Mustafa Maluka recently participated to the group exhibition You Love Me, You Love Me Not at Municipal Gallery in Porto, Portugal showcasing part of the Sindika Dokolo collection and also in Us Is Them by the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, USA. In 2009, he made the cover of the first book on African contemporary art, writing by Sue Williamson, a key figure on the South African art scene since the early 1980s.

Book covers

Mustafa Maluka is an artist and cultural analyst. He is known for theatrically confronting the intersection of contemporary critical theory and global politics with his provocative large-scale portraits. He grew up in Cape Town South Africa but came of age in Amsterdam the Netherlands where he studied at De Ateliers postgraduate art institute and the Amsterdam School for Cultural analysis at the University of Amsterdam.
Maluka's work has appeared on the covers of various books. Most recently his painting entitled "I can't believe you think that of me" appeared on the cover of the Harper Collins book South African Art Now and one of his photographs on the cover of the social science book "The new media nation: indigenous peoples and global communication". A still from a 2001 interactive piece was used as the cover for the book "Africa and its significant others: forty years of intercultural entanglement". The multiple award-winning novel by Doreen Baingana called "Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe" was also adorned with 3 covers featuring different works by the artist.

Awards

Mustafa Maluka - Structural disbelief : an imposition

Preview on April 11, 2013. Exhibition from April 12 to June 1, 2013. The latest solo show by Mustafa Maluka entitled 'Structural Disbelief: an imposition', deals with the social and political structure of prejudice and the various ways, both subtle and overt, in which people are pre-judged and dismissed because of their appearance. The show tackles the structural disbelief faced by successful, high achieving people who appear as 'others' within particular societies. It also explores fragments of dialogical transaction to which the characters in the paintings are subjected to as individuals who appear as ‘other’ within the societies that they live in.