Ugandan artist Kansiime wins in BIC masters of art competition

A recent graduate from Makerere University Business School Brian Kansiime has emerged as one of the winners of the BIC Art Master Africa Competition. 

Kansiime’s art piece titled Life was selected as the People’s Choice winner through online voting. Kansiime received $500 for his submission along with a BIC Artistry Kit. 

Kansiime, until his graduation, was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in International business at MUBS. He is the founder of Sons of Art collective that promotes Ugandan art. Kansiime describes himself as largely self-taught. He was forced to fall back on his innate talent after he failed to secure a job. 

Kansiime was named winner alongside eventual overall winner Fatiou Aboudou who won the competition with his Black Lion art piece. BIC says the original art piece took 250 hours to complete and was drawn using only black Bic Cristal Medium ballpoint pens. 

Aboudou managed to beat off competition from 2,400 artists who submitted pieces from 47 African countries. The art pieces were submitted to BICArtMasters.com. 

Black Lion was reportedly chosen for its creativity and originality by a panel of experts and is set to become part of ‘La Collection BIC’ the company’s official art collection. 

Commenting on the success of the competition, Peter Van den Broeck, general manager, Middle East and Africa said, “Africa is undoubtedly rich in inspiration, talent, and creativity. We were very impressed by the submissions we received and the beautiful work that was produced using only BIC’s ballpoint pens.” 

The BIC Art Master competition was first held in South Africa in 2017 and following its success, it expanded to include all of Africa in 2019. 

Edited by David Tumusiime