Junior Mudahunga was born in July 1994 in what were the last days of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It goes without saying that he has grown up in a country largely conditioned by the strong memory of what happened in 1994, when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by extremist Hutus in 100 days of violent bloodshed. Rwanda since 1994 has grown by leaps and bounds, with unity and reconciliation a key pillar of government-led efforts to ensure that such killings never happen again. “Unconsciously,” he said of the genocide, “it impacted me.”
Mudahunga has come of age in a country where peace is the ultimate imperative, and he’s subliminally motivated by a continuing search for what’s calm, what’s peaceful, what’s serene in his interactions with the natural environment. Nature speaks to him loudly and eloquently enough that he finds meaning in the verdant landscape of Rwanda, which dominates his canvases to the extent that he could be accurately said to specialize in landscapes. His paintings are dominated by shades of blue and green, he said, because those colors represent what is tranquil.
This portfolio features 12 paintings by Mudahunga. Many of them were executed in 2022 or 2023 in what was a highly productive period for the artist. Mudahunga’s presentation is vivid even as his brushstrokes show the strong influence of the European impressionists. It is hard to see his work and not think of the paintings of Camille Pissarro or Alfred Sisley. Mudahunga said that he sometimes paints in the open air, as the artists he admires did, when he isn’t using reference photos of scenes from the Rwandan pastoral. “I am mainly focusing on serene sceneries,” he said, adding, though, that there’s figuration in a number of his landscapes.
These mostly acrylic-on-canvas paintings often show deft composition and superior handling of color and light. There is such masterful execution in these works that it may be hard to believe this is the work of an emerging artist, moreover one who taught himself how to paint. A detail from Sunset in Batsinda, a painting he executed in 2022, has been selected as cover art for this issue of TWR. Beyond its powerful minimalist aesthetic, this is a painting whose almost spiritual vibe is buttressed by the patch of orange at the top juxtaposed with the shade of barren gray at the bottom. Speaking of serenity, what a beautiful rendering of serenity if it could be touched as well as seen. We see similar skill in paintings such as A Walk in Batsinda, in which the artist depicts the solitary figure of a woman, a child on her back, going up a dirt road. But, curiously, she appears to have stopped at a point where the road bifurcates, giving the picture its animating mystery. The painting titled Akagera Park 3, also executed in 2022, is an excellent description of natural vegetation.
Mudahunga told TWR that, although he always painted and drew as a child, he has never been to formal art school. He watched YouTube videos to teach himself some things, including how to stretch a canvas. Mudahunga, who dropped out of college in 2016 to focus on making art, said he’s been able to achieve technical fluency by “practice and hard work.”
Mudahunga is a member of the KomezArt collective of artists in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. The artist spoke of the collective as being of great benefit to him: in addition to being able to show his work to a global audience, he also uses KomezArt’s online portal to monitor what his colleagues are up to. The sense of community KomezArt fosters allows him to appreciate – and learn from – the work of his peers, he said. “I don’t have to focus only on my work,” he said.
Mudahunga’s work has previously been exhibited by the Mitochondria Gallery in Houston, Texas. Mudahunga, alongside his compatriot Leon Manzi, will be the subject of an exhibition by the soon-to-be-launched Weganda Gallery of Art in Bugolobi, Kampala. That show, set for March, will present new pictures by Manzi and Mudahunga, two of the brightest talents at work in Rwanda today. ▪











