The Original Tinga Tinga Paintings and Handicraft Products

Exhibitions

Go to current exhibtions

26 July 2010

3 July 2010

Almost 100 new small paintings were added!! Look in Gallery 7 , Gallery 8 and Gallery 9

27 June 2010

Unbelievable, but 83 new paintings added!! Look in Gallery 6 and Gallery 7

15 June 2010

6 new exciting paintings added. It is "new found" artist called Rasta Agon who makes his premire here! Look in Gallery 6.

14 June 2010

14 new paintings added. Look in Gallery 5 and in Gallery 6

13 June 2010

73 new paintings added. Look in Gallery 4 and in Gallery 5

5 June 2010

New Artist Added!

4 June 2010

New additions by these artists!

31 May 2010

11 new paintings added in Gallery 4

17 May 2010

Major design changes. The "animal sections" were deleted and the design simplified. Go to the "number sections" and you will find new paintings. 33 new paintings added in 3

14 May 2010

23 new paintings added in nr.2 and 3

13 May

13 new paintings added to page 2

5 May

ca 10 new paintings were filled to number 2

by Kelly Wetherille, http://weekenderjapan.com

When Ayumi Sufu’s line of quirky women’s fashion debuted at the spring/summer 2010 Japan Fashion Week last fall, it garnered much attention in the press, creating a fair amount of buzz. It was a breath of fresh air at a time in which Japanese fashion, once closely associated with avant-garde and humor, is considered more conservative or unimaginative than that of many Western designers. “My fashion is full of wit,” says Sufu. “Fashion should be more fun, but most of the Tokyo designers think more seriously.”

Sufu herself, who is full of sunshine and probably the friendliest person one could meet working in fashion, left Japan at the tender age of 16 and headed for England, an experience that would forever influence her ideas about design. After graduating from high school, she attended the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, but found it to be “too fashion.”

Everybody wanted to be different, but for me, it looked the same,” Sufu says of her classmates at Central Saint Martins. She decided to transfer to Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, which is known as a recruiting ground for designers who are seeking young, talented (but not conceited) assistants. Sufu landed a job as a student assistant for Vivienne Westwood, which she did for a year before packing her bags yet again and heading for Paris.

Once in Paris, Sufu quite literally hit the streets in search of a job. She recalls knocking on the door of Belgian designer Bernhard Willhelm’s studio as often as once a week. Finally, her persistence wore him down, and she was hired to help backstage at his next fashion show. This eventually led to a job with Via Bus Stop, one of Japan’s leading importers and retailers of luxury fashion. Sufu moved back to London and served as liaison between the Japanese company and the designers it represented. “I learned how business is really important to continue the fashion designer’s house,” she says. “There are so many talented designers, but they are always struggling [with] money and the business [side].”

But despite all the wonderful experiences and opportunities afforded to Sufu in Europe, she decided it was time to return to her home city of Tokyo. “If I didn’t go back to Japan, maybe I [would have] spent my whole life over there, but my Japanese spirit was calling me,” she says. After a stint working at a modeling agency, Sufu established her own company in July 2008 and showed her first designs at the fashion tradeshow Rendezvous in Paris the same year. Just over a year later she debuted her brand Jazzkatze in Tokyo.

That first collection paid homage to the neighborhood in which Sufu had lived in London, Old Kent Road. She created a hodgepodge of cultural references, but relied heavily on Nigerian and other African influences. She collaborated with a well-known Tingatinga artist, reinterpreting his paintings as prints on bodysuits, leggings and dresses with cutouts. Her models, their faces painted with streaks of colorful ‘tribal’ makeup, strutted down the runway in a kaleidoscope of color, many of them barefoot.

Sufu’s second collection, which she showed at Japan Fashion Week in March, had a title that means ‘rights to dream’ in Russian. She was inspired by Russian avant-garde art from the late 1800s to early 1900s, identifying with artists that at the time were “dreaming of a new world, a new utopia.” For this collection she juxtaposed metal parts (representing the Russian working class) with whimsical Russian doll prints, all pulled together with elegantly modern silhouettes.

As for what the future holds, Sufu is hoping to be able to continue putting on runway shows each season, but feels pressured by the amount of money and stress that go into such a production. She is currently working on her spring/summer 2011 collection, which she says will reference Spanish-influenced Celtic themes and the art of David Hockney. “Think of it as David Hockney’s Riverdance,” she says. She hopes to collaborate with a suitable artist again to make her prints, but is still searching for the right person. Whether or not the collection will be shown during the next Japan Fashion Week remains to be seen, but one thing remains clear: no matter what challenges or hardships may be thrown her way, Ayumi Sufu always comes out smiling.

Below are the official posters made for the FIFA World Cup. Not many people will have these, so you will definitely be in an elitist group of fans if you buy posters. Posters are a central piece in most memorabilia collections. They provide a way to reminisce over an event, or dream about an experience. Perhaps, they are just a way of showing one's support for something or someone. As a FIFA World Cup soccer fan, a poster should be high on your list of "wants".

For purchase and enquiries please go to www.2010fineart.com. Read more about art and FIFA at www.FIFA.com

Noel Kapanda	Hendrick Lilanga
John Kilaka	Hendrick Lilanga
Max Kamundi	Sayuki Matindiko

Date 14 June 2010

Tinga Tinga Ambassador in China 在非洲一年半的时间里，我探寻了非洲的文化，撰写的《我在坦桑尼亚当汀噶汀噶“大使”》一文发表在《中国文化报》，并获得这次“我的非洲故事”征文三等奖，非常高兴获得这个奖励，也是我在非洲经历的一个纪念。

很高兴收到邀请，今天能够参加了2010非洲文化聚焦开幕式及颁奖典礼。

这次活动让我似乎一下子又回到了眷恋的非洲，见到了非洲的朋友和曾经在那的一草一木，以及我的汀噶汀噶。

We have still two remaining paintings by H. Mchisa at the Cooperative. Mchisa passed away in April 2009 leaving behind wife and two school-aged children. We sold almost all paintings (around 30 pieces) and this helped the Mchisa´s family to pay for school fees and school equipment like uniform, bags etc. The two brothers of Mchisa whom you see on the photo (Thabiti Mchisa and Issa Mchisa) helped also Hasani Mchisa´s children. Now they want to sell this painting for 1.000.000 Tsh (ca $800), all money will go to support the family of their brother. (15% must be cut to the Cooperative though) It is the largest painting we have. The buyer will probably get the contact to the children, their photo so that to assure that all money really went to the right hands. It is probably also possible to devide the $800 into more payments and spread it in a few years so that the money could be used for paying the school fees as the children grow up. It is up to the buyer and the brothers of Mchisa to decide. Mchisa´s last painting which he painted was for the Ambassador of Ireland and the painting is placed at the Irish Embassy.

Sarange and Daniel Augusta Sarange is painting Masai paintings which are very popular. The design is very simple. He paints them again and again because he knows he will bring some meal of the day to his family. In the simplicity there is beauty. It was said that our universe could be descibed by one simple equation. It was Einstein. Sarange is a kind of Tinga Tinga Einstein; his simple paintings of masai tell everything about East Africa. But even Sarange gets bored by painting the great and popular simple masai paintings and at that moment he lets his feelings and ideas come out. Out of the blue, he brought me a kind of abstract painting, which he knows, will be difficult to be appreciated by the most of the tourists. So he asked me to put the painting on the webiste. And lastly one notice - Sarange is more scared by snakes than by the devil spirits he paints.

Tinga Tinga Memo Card Game This memory card game developed by African Art Products is based on Tinga Tinga art from Tanzania. All images on the cards were painted by the members of Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society which was started by the Tinga Tinga family in 1991. Among the painters on the cards there is Daudi Tingatinga, the son of E.S.Tingatinga and Omari Amonde, the only living student of E.S.Tingatinga.

During the development of the Memory Card Game in March 2009, the young and talented Tinga Tinga painter Hasani Thabiti Mchisa passed away. We would like to give him credit for his contribution to the Tinga Tinga Memo|36.
You can order the paintings shown on the cards directly from the painters. You will then get a photo of the painter with his signature. For more information about the orders, memory card game and the painters, please visit www.tingatingamemo.com

Abasy Mbuka was born in Dar es Salaam in 1975. Unfortunately his father Asukile Kiando dissapeared when Mbuka was still new born. Nobody knows what happened. When Mbuka was older he continued to look for his father but without success. His father was a journalist in radio Tanzania. In fact the case of Mbuka´s father finished at court lead by his brother Asheli Kiando. Mbuka learned about Tingatinga from Salum Mussa, Mzee Lumumba. The reason was that after Mbuka´s father dissapeared the mother stayed with Salum Mussa. But it was not him who taught him to paint, it was Nipela, another famous Tinga Tinga artist.

Zuberi has been painting this Tinga Tinga for several weeks. It is the different Tinga Tinga, it is the quality Tinga Tinga, it is the Tinga Tinga few have ever seen. Zuberi has time, Zuberi has enaugh money so he is in no need to stress. While he could paint a "similar" painting for 3 days, he took time and worked with details, ideas and inspiration. Give a Tinga Tinga painter a chance and he/she could create great art work. The skills and ideas are there. Unfortunately most painters in Tanzania must think about the next day´s bread and hurry to paint whatever only that it brings them income. Not all of them, Zuberi is one of exceptions. Don´t think you will find this painting on Zanzibar - it takes too much time to paint, certainly not three days. Next time Zuberi will tell us about his artwork himself. The painting is not available. The painting will be exhibited on the exhibition in Denmark.

THE INTERWIEV WITH ARTO MIKKOLA: Lead the Meerkats has some really beautiful cutscenes with very strong storybook-esque vibe. Where did the inspiration for these images came from?At the beginning of the project I did some research on Africa and African art to get inspiration for the whole game. By accident I came across a site about modern African art. In that website I found a painting that really caught my eye. It was a painting by Mwamedi Chiwaya and the art style was called TingaTinga. It had a really nice traditional feel to it. I started to explore about TingaTinga and found out that it is a modern art movement started in 60’s in Tanzania. So you could say that the main inspiration for the cutscenes comes from TingaTinga. Source: http://www.leadthemeerkats.com/LeadTheBlog/?cat=3

"Lead the Meerkats" is a new Nintendo Wii game which will be released byLapland Studio and Inaria Interactive (Finland) in early 2010. In the game you are the young Meerkat seperated from the group and you must find a way to survive and to build your own family. The Meerkats are living in Africa and the game is placed into the African Savannah. But what does it have common with Tinga Tinga?

I was surprised to read on the "Lead the Meerkats" blog that the game´s lead artist Arto Mikkola was inspired by Mwamedi Chiwaya´s paintings and Tinga Tinga art! I thank to Arto Mikkola on behalf of Mwamedi Chiwaya and Tinga Tinga painters that he named them as inspiration source. It is quite fascinating that somebody sits in -20C in Finland and gets inspired by paintings from tropical Africa.

If you want to know more about the Meerkats, go to www.kalahari-meerkats.com. But meerkats live even in Tanzania, not only in Kalahari (they are called Mangusti, but you can correct me). It remains a question if the painters will paint meerkats. Possibly after playing the game!

A wooden candle holder commemorates today's holiday while each day having a new candle be lit. A black candle resides in the middle, symbolizing black skin, while three red candles on the left show hardship and three candles on the right show a prosperous future.

Kwanzaa is celebrated by African-Americans from December 26th-January 1st and is observed in addition to Christmas.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa

21st December

It has been decided on the meeting of the Board of Trustees at TACS (Tingatinga Cooperative) to repair the grave of E.S.Tingatinga. E.S.Tingatinga was founder of the Tinga Tinga art style in 1968 but after 4 years in 1972 he was accidenlty shot by a traffic police in Dar es Salaam. He rests at Msasani graveyard. Msasani is the residential area where he was living and where most of the painters live now. Traditionally every year a procession of painters is gathering at Tingatinga´s grave every year to pay him tribute for starting art movement which is now sustaining hundreds of Tinga Tinga painters in East Africa.

Left: A hired brick-layer puting the cement layer. The son of E.S.Tingatinga in the middle and Thabiti Mchisa on the right. Notice the T-Shirt with the face of Barack Omaba, the USA president. Right: A view of the grave.

John Kilaka in Berlin In 2007 John Kilaka went to villages in western Tanzania to collect old African stories. He was supported by Kerstin and Berndt Santesson from Sweden. One of the African tales John Kilaka collected - Amazing Tree - is now published by Baobab publisher in Switzerland. In November 2009 John Kilaka will go on 3 weeks long tour around Switzerland to launch the book, to tell the african tales and to exhibit his art.

Left: John Kilaka at the Berliner Literature Festival while he narrated stories for more than 200 hundred children. PS. The original paintings for the book were never used, since Baobab wanted slight changes. Right: The front cover of the book.

1.10.2009

Tinga Tinga on Zantel bill boards The economic potential of Tingatinga art of Tanzania was already realized by Zantel Company - through their billboards everywhere in Tanzania. But Tingatinga artists get nothing. Can we change it? We have written a letter to Zantel and once we get the answer we will publish it here.

Issa Ajaba is a painter from our Tingatinga Cooperative. Part of his painting was used in nation wide advertisement of Zantel Company, the mobil phone network provider. He was quite surprised to see his painting on big billboards in the city of Dar es Salaam because he was not aware of it.

Right: Ajaba with his "bird" painting Left: Ajaba in front of the billboard.