Zion Kyakulaga & Grace Talitwala Collective

Zion Kyakulaga and Grace Talitwala (b. 1972, Jinja, Uganda) are self-taught Ugandan artists whose joint collective is dedicated to facilitating the work of young artists in their home country. After winning the Positively Art calendar contest in 2001, Kyakulaga and Talitwala used proceeds from the prize to purchase several acres of land near the source of the Nile River in Uganda, where they have since built an artists’ colony for those living with AIDS and other terminal diseases. 

Kyakulaga and Talitwala’s shared practice focuses on figural scenes rendered in banana fiber and tree bark. Symbolically reflecting on their own experiences of living with HIV/AIDS, their representational works capture individuals confronted by arduous tasks—struggling under a ponderous burden or standing at the base of a steep ascent. However, within these depictions of hardship, there are seeds of hope. 

Of their 1997 work The Destitute, they wrote, “Here the destitute carries everything he has...including his burden. The woman of Africa is also carrying something...a pot of water promising of life.” 

The artists were featured in the 2002 The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) show Fusion: The Art of Contemporary Africa.