Grasslands: The Afrofuturistic Journey of Mwinga Sinjela’s Artistic Evolution

Walking down sixth avenue on a Saturday night one couldn’t help but be pulled in by the alluring glow of lights from a space with floor-to-ceiling windows framing futuristic art. This is Grasslands, the debut solo exhibition of artist Mwinga Sinjela presented by Sheer. We met Mwinga last September at the Sheer booth at the Affordable art fair with some beautiful pieces but had no idea the extent of his work. The pieces at this solo show spanned from 2018 to 2025 showing his growth as an artist in both technique and composition.

The exhibition title evokes the expansive savannas of Mwinga's homeland in Zambia, where limitless horizons symbolize infinite potential and vitality. Grasslands celebrates Black and Queer identities while drawing deeply from Afrofuturism, science fiction, animation, and comic aesthetics—creative vehicles that enable Mwinga to access realms of unlimited imagination and possibility.

Zambian-born, New York-based artist Mwinga Sinjela creates paintings featuring powerful, gender-fluid Black characters in surreal landscapes. His work blends influences from Zambia's rich cultural heritage with elements of global contemporary expression, crafting alternate realities freed from present-day limitations and oriented toward the boundless prospects of tomorrow.

Sinjela’s primary mediums are acrylic, acryla gouache and he loves to incorporate fabrics from back home in Zambia. His works play with texture, with straw, fabrics and unconventional canvas shapes. The evolution of his style from vibrant, bright hues of orange and blue to subdued, yet still signature Sinjela creamy oranges and dreamy purples is a lovely transition to see. My personal favorite of the exhibition was Diva Worship, a piece from 2024 in dreamy blues and purples – a goddess levitating above a field with two astronatic-looking figures in space suits with symbols for the moon and sun on their backs, complete with space helmets. The vixen-like fingernails on the astronauts makes them a bit androgenous and the whole scene is just other worldly.

Starting from the beginning of Sinjela’s journey his experimentation with textures is apparent. In Searchin, from 2018, we see two African figures looking into the distance with cartoonish features mixed with distinctive African print jackets with straw-like lapel tufts coming off the shoulders and collar. Perhaps Sinjela’s interpretation of a comic book style with a Zambian twist! On this same wall we see LoveCraft Country from this period with a clear evolution in style to embrace what will become one of his signature colors, a vibrant orange. The details of red clouds, the Zambian grasslands in combination with the powerful female figures is perhaps his interpretation of a female led Afrofuturistic scene.

Sinjela’s use of oranges and blues is a throughline of the works on display, most prominently seen in You Won’t, Moonset on Mars, and even his most recent Warm Winds, his most recent piece in the show. While the boldness of the tones has softened over time it is a very pleasing,lovely contrast especially given the comic-book inspiration and style Sinjela is developing. The evolution of his style to embrace softer tones and more subtlety in the shapes in the figures is lovely to see while he still retains the playfulness of the comic aesthetic. In a way we can almost see Sinjela maturing as a person and artist as the characters in his work gradually become more mature and manly looking as we move closer to his more recent work.

Brighter days and She and Me were pieces which played with canvas size and unusual shapes. In Brighter days, the canvas is almost shaped like a rocket taking off with red-orange clouds of smoke at the bottom of the work almost enveloping a villainous looking figure with a light coming from his pointed fingers. The shifty eyed figure’s two fingers are pointed as though in the shape of a gun and are the first of the paintings we noticed where the male figure is wearing bright blue gloves. Sinjela uses orange in almost every painting, even if it is only accents within the work. In Brighter days the vibrant orange with the bright blue of the gloves is a lovely contrast.

One of our favorite pieces with a personal touch is Welcome Committee, an enormous 64x 98 inch masterpiece which includes a self-portrait of Sinjela. “That’s me on the left with the blue gloves, along with three of my best friends” says Sinjela and an unexpected twist being that he is wearing bright blue eyeliner, the same blue gloves he is wearing for the opening and some very hippy orange printed pants. This Afrofuturistic style allows for self expression and fully embracing every aspect of his personality as we see the words “Are you ready to serve?!” in bubble letters underneath the figure’s feet and “Are you ready to slay?!”, “Are you ready?!” “Yeeuh!” next to his depictions of his friends. Perhaps channeling their alter egos in the comic world ready for a night on the town in Mars.

The above mentioned work gives you a feeling of immersion in Sinjela’s Afrofuturistic world as we’ve already been enveloped by so many characters in small and the larger than life figures finish off our journey to this comic book world.

Mwinga Sinjela’s debut solo exhibition Grasslands invites viewers into a vibrant Afrofuturistic universe that blends the rich cultural heritage of Zambia with the limitless possibilities of the future. From his early experimentation with textures and bold color contrasts to the more refined and subtle works of his recent pieces, Sinjela’s artistic evolution is both captivating and thought-provoking. Through powerful imagery of gender-fluid Black characters set in surreal landscapes, Sinjela challenges boundaries and opens up space for self-expression and identity.

As we move through his journey, we see the artist maturing, not only in his technique but also in his understanding of the world and his place within it. Ultimately, Grasslands stands as a testament to the power of imagination and the infinite potential of Black and Queer identities, inviting us to embrace a future free from limitations and full of creative possibility.