artist/ Freeman

République démocratique du Congo (RDC)

Emmanuel Ngule Mputu got himself noticed at the age of 20 in 2019, with a striking self-portrait entitled Futur obscur. A paradoxical title, given that his path seems to have been marked out for a long time, so long, in fact, that he cannot remember exactly when he decided to become an artist.

His father died, and he is the youngest of 11 brothers and sisters. This gifted artist did not have the means to study art, either during his humanities or by applying to ABA (School of Fine Arts). He started to earn a living in 2016 by doing portraits on request. He tried his hand at painting during the same year, but without any joy. So Ngule Freeman picked up his graphite lead, his coloured pencils and charcoal again.

In 2019, he started a series on Congolese society in which he depicts, in his hyperrealist fashion, the wide variety of feelings and ways of life of young people in Kinshasa: addiction, jealousy, their search for an identity, etc. At the same time, in 2021 he began a series of portraits of leading Congolese artists, a club that he definitely plans to join sooner or later.