“Urban canvases: Kampala’s visual culture through posters” was an exhibition at the Makerere University Art Gallery in Kampala, Uganda, 14-18 November 2025. It was produced in collaboration with Dr Angelo Kakande and Miti Kinaawola as part of the bigger project “Urban visual cultures and heritage in Kampala, Uganda”, funded by the University of Melbourne. We displayed 141 poster-size photographs of public images from the streets of Kampala, taken over three years of field work between 2023-25. These were organised into 13 thematic categories and accompanied by short captions.
Categories — artistic murals /\ billboards /\ commercial buildings signage /\ event banners /\ healer posters /\ land (not) for sale /\ paint companies /\ removed images /\ shop signs /\ Stecia /\ wall branding /\ warnings.
I was sad not to be there for the exhibition but my colleagues nailed it and we have more goods coming from this project soon. Check out some photos and our positioning below.
The exhibition critically examined the pivotal role of public signage and urban surface displays in shaping public culture. It displayed a visual archive of public signs and images from the streets of Kampala, to make an argument for their social, cultural, and heritage urban value.
Current research on graffiti, public signage, and other public images has largely overlooked the diversity of urban inscriptions and displays which characterise Global South cities. We need new vocabulary and interdisciplinary methods to document, analyse, and value public signs and inscriptions, and other forms of mark-making in these urban environments ā and āUrban canvasesā contributed to this wider project.
By curating reproductions of these signs and images through posters in a gallery space, the exhibition momentarily distanced them from the āvisual noiseā of Kampalaās over-saturated visual landscape, consciously elevating them to distinct artforms. In this curated environment, they served a powerful dual function: as artforms and as potent conveyors of knowledge and voices from Kampala city.
This strategic reframing aimed to broaden the discourse within Kampalaās urban culture to engage deeply with critical contemporary issues such as human rights, eco-activism, and the complex political and economic realities that influence the visual landscape of Kampala Cityāa landscape itself shaped by billboards, posters, signposts, banners, and graffiti.
We hope the exhibition generated public debate around what types of cultures are archived in urban public images, and how these can be understood, managed, and safeguarded.
Concept and research: Dr Sabina Andron (University of Melbourne), Dr AngeloĀ Kakande (Makerere University), Miti Kinaawola (Tembea Kampala Tours)
Photography: Sabina Andron and Miti Kinaawola
Curator: Prof Angelo Kakande
Makerere Art Gallery exhibition team: Isabella B.R Kawamara, Ainomugisha Collins, Ainembabazi Esther, Nyanzi John Bosco, Lewin Nayebare
This exhibition was supported by a University of Melbourne Early Career Research grant.
Read a review: https://www.independent.co.ug/urban-canvasses-depict-kampalas-visual-culture/
SABINA ANDRON 