African Creatives Explore Global Human Challenges at ART X Lagos 2025
Artwork can provoke more inquiries than conclusions. For many creators, that is precisely the intention. They prompt us to ponder the ideas and themes presented in their works, enabling us to integrate our thoughts and experiences into what we observe. This creates a mental partnership that merges the realms of artist and observer.
Two artists from Uganda invite us to reflect on their creations and the themes and inquiries their artworks inevitably provoke. Richard Atugonza and Charlene Komuntale were the featured artists at Afriart Gallery during ART X Lagos 2025, which took place from November 6 to November 9, 2025, at the Federal Palace in Lagos, Nigeria.
Atugonza and Komuntale each produce artwork that differs from one another, yet they align in the themes and concepts they investigate. They delve into our internal and external realities and how we navigate and find harmony between them. Their works contemplate the discovery of meaning within societal frameworks: labor, beauty, and identity.
For Atugonza, this entails reevaluating the notion of “working out.” While this term typically pertains to physical fitness, often associated with a gym, he has contemplated it more expansively. “Working out” moves beyond the gym and encompasses overall resilience, dedication, and perseverance—the foundational elements of life.
Atugonza utilizes another gym symbol, employing dumbbells as a metaphor for the emotional weights we bear, which influence our approach to life’s hurdles. The sculptures depict figures in a state of rest, embodying contemplative body language. As they reflect, the weight—once perhaps unbearable—becomes manageable as they find the strength to lift it.
Komuntale presented works from her ongoing project titled Threads at ART X Lagos 2025. This series centers on beauty, specifically how it is formed, inherited, and ultimately internalized. Through beading, thread, and corsets, Komuntale explores the tensions arising from conflicting notions: freedom and control, adornment and work, exposure and limitation.
Threads showcases various objects, including open books with beading stitched across the pages and specific phrases highlighted in thread. However, her adorned corsets stand out as her most striking pieces, replete with symbolism. Historically, corsets served to confine women’s bodies, shaping them into an ideal form. Today, if they are donned, it is largely a matter of choice and self-expression. This duality lies at the core of Komuntale’s work. She has removed the outer layer of the corset to reveal beading underneath and painted images of women tugging at the corset itself. This act symbolizes how beauty is a balance of competing tensions: self-expression and construction defined by our societal frameworks.
Through the works of both artists, there is much to contemplate; we are all members of society, yet despite these ideas and feelings being universal, each person perceives the world in a unique way. The reflective nature of these artworks enables us to appreciate the creativity of Atugonza and Komuntale while providing a space for our own experiences within it.
Scroll down to view the artworks that Atugonza and Komuntale exhibited at Afriart Gallery during ART X Lagos 2025.