Inside Out

The inner worlds of oil painter Cinga Samson demand the viewer looks beyond the surface of his works and into the self-taught artist’s intensely personal universe.

- Binwe Adebayo

Cinga Samson doesn’t read the hundreds of reviews celebrating his paintings around the world – nor does he plan to. His job is to work, he says, to reflect and to create artworks that represent his sense of self, led by his desire to treat his audiences to rare, dynamic depictions of beauty.

Born in 1986, the self-taught painter has a history deeply entrenched in the arts. From a childhood interest to a chance artistic ‘adoption’ by artists Luthando Laphuwano, Xolile Mtakatya and Gerald Tabata, Samson found his way toward oils, his chosen medium. After hanging around the artists’ studio, showcasing his growing skill and opening himself to their community, his early twenties became a turning point.

‘At this moment, that’s when I consciously said, “I want to spend my life producing artwork”,’ he says. It was a declaration that would manifest into an illustrious career as an oil painter. Reflecting on the rage, displacement and rejection that bubbled up from his upbringing in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, Samson used painting as a way to reveal his inner self – for the sake of his own peace, and for his steadily growing audiences. He habitually creates images featuring himself as a kind of protagonist for stories about him and his community, but over time, the energy has shifted.