Longinos Nagila
Kenya, 1986
Person TypeIndividual
BiographyLonginos Nagila is an experimental multimedia artist who lives and works in Nairobi. He studied film making in Bari, Italy after graduating from the Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts in Nairobi.Nagila is inspired by early black and white photography, and often transfers images from photographs to paper using paint. Nagila’s practice evolves constantly, but his work is driven by a critique of the processes and implications of industrialization, mass production and rapid urbanization. Nagila is interested in the ways in which Western culture and fashion infl¬uence Africa. In the works that explore this theme, he challenges the viewer to see the radical contrast between concepts of contemporary Western and traditional African beauty and design.He is also a keen observer of the the influence of Western capitalism and material values in Africa, using recognizable religious symbols, images of brand logos and the titles of his works to comment on the co-existence of religion and materialism in African society. “As the world becomes larger, turning into a global village, consumerism and capitalism uses that as an advantage”, he says.