In Fumba Town, Zanzibar, a wall now carries the face of a chimpanzee wrapped in bright kitenge fabric. The mural, titled Wrapped, is one of Joseph Wamala Kyeyune’s most celebrated works, created as part of the Wild Mural Projects. Inspired by a visit to Ngamba Island in Uganda, where he witnessed the care given to rescued chimpanzees, Kyeyune painted the piece as a reminder of how much humans take from nature, and how little we give back. ‘The mural came from my interest in giving a rare and endangered gift of a species wrapped in fabric,’ he explains. Finished in five days and sealed with his recurring post stamp motif, the mural stands as both artwork and message: a timeless reminder of our debt to the wild.
That sense of message and meaning runs through much of Kyeyune’s work. A painter and muralist born and raised in Kampala, he has built his career on questioning elitism, probing social mobility, and exploring the grey spaces where saint meets sinner. His figurative paintings are alive with serigraphy, text, and recreated found images, from iron sheets and vehicle number plates to post stamps that carry the vibrancy of the streets into galleries and public spaces.
Intentionality
Kyeyune’s journey into art was intentional. In 2012, he enrolled at Michelangelo College of Creative Arts, pursuing a diploma that introduced him to formal technique and theory. By 2016, he was at Kyambogo University, refining his skills through a degree in Industrial Art and Design. ‘Back then, I just wanted to create. But over time, art became a mirror for society and for myself. I realized it could be both a gift and protest,’ he recalls.
Those early years laid the foundation for an artist whose work would increasingly reflect the pulse of the streets as well as the questions of conscience. Every artist has their turning points, and for Kyeyune, a number of such moments stand out vividly. His exhibition Saints and Sinners in Kaberamaido District was a site-specific installation where he transformed an ordinary hall into an ephemeral gallery. The exhibition was about unlocking possibilities in people’s minds.
He says: ‘It was my way of giving back to those who inspire us.’
The KLA Art Biennale in 2018 placed him under the mentorship of African art masters Simon Njami and Godfried Donkor, sharpening his understanding of curation, storytelling, and the role of the artist as both witness and participant. In 2024, at the BlaxTARLINES Residency in Ghana, he found what he calls a new lens: ‘From Ghana, I learned to treat art not only as a commodity but as a gift, a shared human inheritance.’
At the Bayimba Festival in 2017 and 2019, designing stage backdrops pushed him to scale ideas to reach entire audiences. And at Sanaa Fest in Australia in 2020, his exhibition I Am Because We Are explored multiculturalism and earned him a residency, broadening his sense of how art interacts across cultures and identities. Each milestone did not just elevate his career; it stretched his practice and expanded his philosophy.
But to measure Kyeyune’s work only by exhibitions and accolades would be to miss its heart. Through Vodo Art Society, the collective he co-founded, art becomes a communal experience. ‘We have created experiential exhibitions for the public to see, internalise, and provoke them to question their purpose,’ he says.
Impactful
With Vodo, he has helped curate works like Saints and Sinners in Kaberamaido and Zzadde by Yiga Joshua at Motiv. He has also painted murals in collaboration with organisations like Pollicy, sparking community conversations about mental health and Covid-19. At Mulago Cancer Institute, he painted with children battling cancer, transforming sterile corridors into colourful spaces of play and resilience.
‘Impact is not about numbers,’ he insists. ‘It is about provoking thought, opening possibility, and gifting art as something more than decoration.’ Kyeyune’s signature style combines figurative painting with serigraphy, text, and found images. The incorporation of everyday materials-iron sheets, number plates, stamps-connects high art to street vernacular. It’s a deliberate move, one that collapses the divide between the gallery and the roadside billboard.
‘I’m inspired by breadwinners, the labourers and vendors who put their lives on the line to provide for others. Their sacrifices are the true embodiment of love and humanity,’ he says. Within those daily struggles, he sees the intersection of saint and sinner, a recurring theme in his work. The post stamp, which appears in Wrapped and other pieces, is more than a graphic element.
For him, it symbolises a message sealed and delivered, a record of a time and place. He draws inspiration from ‘all things life throws at us,’ but particularly from people who live and love beyond themselves. ‘I usually like to highlight breadwinners. the sacrifices they make are a true embodiment of humanity.’
His murals and canvases carry this philosophy: to timestamp existence, to show both beauty and contradiction, and to remind viewers that art is not an isolated luxury and is part of daily life.
Ubiquitous
Today, Kyeyune’s work can be seen both online-on his Instagram @the.Wamala.Art and Vodo Art Society’s website, and in public walls and galleries across Uganda and beyond. But his vision stretches forward. ‘On my wish list,’ he says simply, ‘is to always evolve.’ That evolution, for him, is not about chasing trends but about deepening his authenticity, widening his community, and holding on to art’s role as both mirror and gift.
‘Explore different forms of art,’ he advises young creatives. ‘Enjoy every season of self-discovery. Be present. Be part of a community. Study the business, but don’t be swallowed by it. Observe more. Fill in the blanks.’ In Fumba Town, where a chimpanzee wrapped in fabric watches over the streets, those blanks are already being filled, strokes of colour, fragments of truth, and reminders of humanity’s shared responsibility. And from Kampala to Zanzibar to Adelaide, Wamala Kyeyune continues to paint those truths, one wall, one canvas, one borrowed story at a time.