Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga (born 1991) is a contemporary painter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose Afrofuturism works have been exhibited across Africa and in Europe and the United States.

Life

Kamuanga Ilunga was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the second of seven kids, including five sisters.

He currently divides his time between living in Kinshasa, where he has a studio, and Brussels, Belgium. and in New York's Armory Show art fair. In 2017 his painting "Elongated Head" sold for £11,250 and in 2018 "Mangbetu" sold at Sotheby's for £65,000.

Style and technique

Kamuanga Ilunga's Afrofuturism paintings depict the clash of culture and technology and are created in acrylic and oil on canvas from posed photographs of live models. The figures in his paintings allude to European portraiture, dystopian science fiction and traditional Congolese sculpture and textiles, allowing him to "tattoo the badges of contemporary technology into the skin of those who procure these materials for others' profit."