Sand, sawdust, old plastic and sisal ate just same of the unwanted materials artists are giving a new lease on life as mixed media art.
Visual art is celebrated for its diversity that gives rise to beauty. In Rwanda, mixed media art, thanks to innovative use of recycled waste has been growing away from the glare of the public. Some of the country's leading mixed media art practitioners are as follow.
Epa Binamungu
From the 67-year old's initial creation of fine acrylics and oil paintings, was added sand, sawdust, backcloth, wire mesh, wood, and old mosquito nets. He has also used old metal pieces like motorcycles, books, shoes, and wire mesh to emerge with mixed-media installations.
Timothy Wandulu
With his cra going beyond canvas painting, the 30-year old has taken to advocacy art, where he cra s pieces for community awareness on cross-cutting issues on health and environment. He collects airtime cards, old umbrellas, paper, cutlery, old plastic and metallic cans from streets and rubbish pits then turns them into admirable art pieces.
Crista Uwase
The acclaimed "Queen of Collage" has spent year practising eco-friendly art forms, skillfully using papers from old magazines, newspapers, and other material by cutting, sorting then patching them before getting them onto canvas or wood. The self-taught artist has taken her works through various exhibitions locally and internationally.
Pascal Bushaija
The 64-year old, whose are found across most big hotels in Kigali, is adept at realism and semi-abstract form, incorporating materials like sisal, sawdust and glue to embrace cultural themes.
Hortance Kamikazi
With her commercial practice dating back to 2015, Kamikazi stands out not only for her skillful sole acrylics paintings, but her specialty in welding metallic material to form desired images, fusing them with other materials like barks of tree before sticking them on painted canvas backgrounds. The 25-year-old also uses coins and wires too
Djamal Ntagara
At a joint exhibition in 2015, he introduced six pieces titled "Second use of Seed" that he made by using dried mango seed pieces to map human images.
The 32-year-old artist has since then explored various materials like nails, plastics, and cans.
Another mixed-media artists of note is Innocent Buregeya, who experiments using old toothbrushes, cans, wooden boards, and fi re. Not to be left out, Sylvie Bora xperiments using sisal, old cloths, and grass to create versatile works, while Benjamin Rusagara goes for old tires, sisal and wires to erect unique art.