Elson Aaron Kambalu is a Malawian artist based in Lilongwe, Malawi. He shares people's stories and creates works that stimulate debate.[1] He is also a curator and businessperson owning several art galleries in Malawi.[2] He was regarded as a champion of the artistic landscape in the country.[3]
Elson was born in December 1972 in Nsanje District, Malawi, to Aaron and Jane Kambalu, as a fourth-born child in a family of eight. His father was a clinical officer working for the government while his mother was a primary school teacher.[4]
Elson graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree at University of Malawi (Polytechnic) in 1997. He also has a post graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in 2003.[5]
Elson is a self-taught artist who only realized his career after graduating from the University of Malawi. He started painting in 1998 whilst employed by several organizations over a seven-year period. In 2005, aged 32, he quit his job to concentrate fully on his art. He also pursued art and cultural entrepreneurship by opening a company called Art-House Africa.
His work has been exhibited in several countries around the world. He has been featured on BBC’s Focus on Africa,[6] CNN’s African Voices,[7] and Mnet’s Studio 53.
After several exhibitions, he opened his first art gallery, Kamusu in 2008. In 2009, he started a publication called Sons and Daughters Magazine. In 2011, he acquired another gallery, La Galleria Africa. He also runs Savannah Duty Free Art Space at Kamuzu International Airport.
Elson is a conceptual artist who primarily works in abstract expressionism and installations.[8]
In 2013, Elson was one of the international artists featured in the Foreign Bodies, Common Ground exhibition.[9] The artists worked in research centers in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, and the UK, and were invited to spend at least six months exploring the activity of researchers and producing new work in response to their experiences. They documented their experiences within the “complex realm that lies between scientific processes and local communities, often on the front lines of communicable diseases.”[10]
While in residence, Elson explored both traditional and contemporary approaches to medicine and research. He interacted with a wide variety of people in urban and rural settings – from clinicians and traditional herbalists to study participants and tribal chiefs, as well as community workers, pharmacologists, health economists and musicians. Fascinated by the cultural complexities between research teams and the communities they serve, Elson invited people to create work inspired by their understandings and experiences of health studies. They expressed and discussed their views regarding research.[11]
