Stanley bia, the Sunglasses Artist

The youthful artist’s series of paintings of different personalities wearing sunglasses interrogate how these fashionable objects empower self esteem.

ART | DOMINIC MUWANGUZI | He’s shy and an introvert. If you’re in a room with him, you may miss him out save for his glasses which he never takes off. “I have been wearing glasses since I was young because I have an impairment with my eyes. I am short sighted and without glasses, I can’t see well,” he says in an almost stuttering voice that reveals his shyness. However, when you begin to have a conversation about his art, you may notice a slight change in his timidness. There’s immediately a tone of excitement in his voice which gives away how passionate he’s about his painting. He begins to talk about his work endlessly and sometimes you have to interrupt him to ask for certain explanations in the paintings he continuously fishes out of his small studio located in Muwayire, Kisugu, on the outskirts of Kampala. “I have painted over 300 paintings since I started”, he declares triumphantly. I am quite amazed by this assertion. With his age, probably under 22 years old, he could be a prolific painter; one fully dedicated to his practice that he can be able to pull off such a feat seamlessly. He perhaps notices my quiet apprehension and adds, “I paint everyday and I have been doing so, for the past six years as a professional artist.”

I shift my attention from this allegedly huge volume of work he refers to, to examine its quality. I am partially impressed with what is presented before my eyes. Stanley’s style is portraiture art and is inspired by what lives in his immediate surroundings and personal experience. “I love hip- hop music and mostly I draw my inspiration from this type of music. I love painting hip- hop icons like Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Future, 21 Savage and Nicki Minaj. To me Lamar is like the black Jesus and this is why I painted him with a crown of thorns as an incarnation of Jesus Christ,” he says joyously.

His palette is a mixture of earthy and luminous colours which inject an atmosphere of vibrancy and energy his paintings. Equally, these hues correlate with the subject of freedom of expression which underlies hip hop music and the personality of the youth who identify with this music. “You notice that most of my subjects are Gen Z and these colours and the sunglasses are a representation of their lifestyle. This generation of young people like to stand out a lot and are always eager to express how they feel and think about things which surround them regardless of what conventional society perceives them to be”, he says.

The paintings with subjects wearing sunglasses captivate me the most and I can’t stop staring at them. According to me they’re unusually common and suggest a much deeper meaning than simply the aesthetic appeal of someone being painted wearing glasses. I suspect there’s a hidden story behind the different sizes, shades and designs of these fashion objects. I am right with my wild guess. “I paint people with sunglasses because I discovered that they’re a tool to uplift one’s confidence. Many people struggle with low self esteem when they’re in public but if they wear glasses, they feel they have overcome this inadequacy”, he explains as he divides his attention between the huge stack of paintings he has pressed against the thin wall of his studio and me. I keep on looking in earnest at these drawings trying to contextualize what he has just said and discover how intelligent he’s as an artist. Human behaviour is dictated by circumstances and the things humans know or are exposed to. The act of wearing sunglasses is often prompted by the desire to either look differently or conceal a particular identity in this case, shyness. Stanley’s keen study of human behavourism through his paintings elevates his work beyond realistic representation.

With quite a modest experience in art- Stanley has no formal training in art but was exposed to drawing in an orphanage school he attended but later dropped out- he’s destined for success. Not limited by the dismal resources at his disposal, he’s always eager to see how he improves his art through interacting with different types of audiences. When we first met, it was at a studio visit he was participating in and wanted to learn new ways of improving his practice. Such commitment and dedication to learn is a perfect ingredient to aim for the moon and not stars which is the goal of this youthful introverted artist.

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Bia is an acronym for Believe in art.