Trevor Aloka

Aloka Trevor is a self-taught, mixed-media visual artist based in Kampala. He has been practicing art for three years. After completing college he pursued a mechanics course. However, he never finished the course and instead joined the Kampala art scene through 32° East. As an artist, he is inspired by daily events in society thus creating art and creating a platform for discussion, debate, and opinion on social issues.

In Ready for Export, his KLA ART ‘21 project, Aloka stages an export clearance area as an inquiry into migratory labour practices among young people. Through paintings of children’s faces within the installation, he evokes a humanity that is often invisible in the transactions of the labour market. Using a palette of copper and gold, Aloka places personified objects and precious metals on pedestals to connect labour as a commodity to how young people view their value, and what their value is worth to their country.

During his 2109 residency at 32° East, he explored how stereotyping and generalizations affect the perceived and lived identity of Langi men through his project, ‘Lucid But Invincible Beauty’. Trevor’s paintings, sourced from his own photographic images, are patched with symbolic materials that purport the strengths and weaknesses of the subjects. The figures patched with metal have an expanded understanding of their identity that goes beyond the stereotypes. While figures patched with polythene bags are living in a bleak, bland void and their identity is in flux.