Zambia, b. 1996

Jack Kabangu (b.1996, Zambian) is a Copenhagen-based self-taught contemporary artist whose practice fuses the rhythms of urban culture with the layered identity of the African diaspora. His paintings are charged with bold color contrasts, tactile textures, and recurring mask-like faces that recall both tribal iconography and contemporary street culture. Drawing inspiration from graffiti, hip-hop, and personal memory, Kabangu stages the dualities of joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, light and darkness in a raw yet poetic manner. Using brushes, fingers, and scrapers, he leaves visceral traces that infuse his canvases with immediacy, evoking echoes of Jean-Michel Basquiat while forging a distinct visual language of his own. Rapidly gaining international recognition through exhibitions across Europe, Asia, and the U.S., Kabangu is emerging as one of the most compelling voices reimagining identity and expression in today’s global art scene.