Republikein Newspaper

Enzo Amuele

Born in the early ’90s, the cool and calm Nambowa Malua has been drawing since he was a child and has made art look easy.

The young fellow was born in the northern part of Namibia, attended primary school in Telham and senior secondary at Maresda in South Africa.

In 2007 he moved back to Windhoek and attended school at Tanben College and later went to Hochland High School, where he matriculated.

The passion for art he had developed at an early age propelled him to pursue his tertiary education in the field of visual arts at the University of Namibia (Unam).

Malua has an artistic vision to validate art as an essential tool in child development and to frequently use art as a healing tool, and to convert his audience into participants or artists.

He mentions that artists have the power to raise awareness of a large variety of causes.

"Several art activities are aimed at raising awareness of human trafficking, and a variety of other topics such as ocean conservation, marriage equality, pollution and so on. Artists are great catalysers of change,” he says.

The young artist had his first breakthrough in 2014 and he never looked back. In 2014, he had the honour of having the Namibian Business Innovation Centre host his first exhibition.

"At first, I thought I was to be part of a group exhibition, but it turned out that it was a solo and my very first exhibition. It was indeed a very great first step," he says proudly.

Malua further identifies himself as spontaneous with group art sessions and live painting.

He mostly works with the human figure as his main subject matter, but now and then he tends to delve into animals and landscape paintings as well.

Malua says every artist is ultimately a communicator.

“Every work of art created in the spirit of good communication will have a long-lasting story and legacy," he says.

Fun facts about Malua

Malua is versatile in creativity.

He is a storyteller.

Malua does voice impressions.

He is a science junkie.

Malua is an underground musician too.