Artist Profile
Maingaila Muvundika
Zambian visual artist and photographer
Maingaila Muvundika (b.1999) is a Zambian visual artist and photographer whose work explores how different demographic elements of a community inform how people interact and navigate within the wider community. Through costuming and the production of sets, Maingaila produces staged photographs that are deeply personal and observant. His practice probes aspects of individuality, fashion, beauty standards, spirituality and belonging as a discovery into how identity and sense of self is shaped. Growing up, Maingaila was always fascinated with his family’s photo album. This is where his fascination with the medium began. In his teens, he started an Instagram account that became a repository of many photographs of his immediate surroundings and observations, from foggy mornings on his way to school or plant matter in his home. As his practice developed, he began to incorporate his love for fashion and editorials with self portraiture which he is now known for. While pursuing a Banking and Finance degree at Mulungushi University, he turned the camera on his friends. Deeping his practice to not only encompass fashion and self-portraiture but to also investigate different sociological issues of class, familial structures and the establishment with a focus on how the shape who we become and when we become. In recent years, his practice has expanded to printmaking and collage further exploring his dissection of what it means to be.