b. 1992 in Kinshasa, RD Congo; currently lives and works in Kinshasa, RD Congo
Hilary Balu is a graduate of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa and is represented by MAGNIN-A gallery in Paris, France. His work focuses on his culture, country, and more broadly on the history of the African continent and aesthetic codes of Western art. His paintings bear witness to the transformation of African society caused by globalization and consumerism. Present in most of his works is the “Nkisi Mangaaka,” an ancestral divinatory sculpture which is the symbol of a collective memory now neglected in favor of new symbols of capitalism. In his latest series, Voyage vers Mars, Balu metaphorically stages the tragedy of contemporary migration— in this case the flight of a population to another continent like astronauts leaving a destroyed earth to go to another planet. His work has been presented in numerous international exhibitions such as at AKAA art fair in Paris, France in 2020; In-discipline, presented by the Montresso Foundation at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech, Morocco 2019; Fiction Congo in 2019 at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Switzerland; Congo Stars in 2018 at the Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria; and Kinshasa Chroniques installed in 2018 at the International Museum of Modest Arts in Sète, France and which will be presented at the Cité de l’Architecture & du Patrimoine on October 14, 2020. He has participated in several residencies with prestigious institutions, including the Montresso Foundation in Marrakech, Morocco, the Atelier Solar in Madrid, Spain, the Pro Helvetia residency in Geneva, Switzerland and the University of Johannesburg in Johannesburg, South Africa.
