About The Artist

Born in 1980 in Uganda, Juuko grew up surrounded with the turmoil of war. He was surrounded by constant death and destruction, which lead to his earliest works portraying soldiers shooting civilians in the streets. It was these memories and the desire to capture life in Africa that Juuko decided to become an artist. After graduating from Kampala University in 2003 with honors in Anatomy, he decided to dedicate his time fully to painting.

His art is wholly contextual - focusing on society, politics, culture and music. Women empowerment has always been his favorite source of inspiration. "Imagine when you have something to say but when you start talking, words don't come out…and when they do come out they are not given a home to be." He feels it is his social responsibility to speak with his brush and preach the gospel of equality by painting the vast number of contributions women have made to his society.

Juuko's focus on politics is based on the political party often referred to in Uganda as "No Change". This is the group that will forever stay in power, no matter how weak they may become; and consequently the people will suffer because of that weakness. People continue to be treated without dignity or fairness in both the political and judicial systems as the "No Change" party misallocates donor funds and suffers with instability and unrest. Juuko uses his art as a weapon to fight the workings of this political party.

"Life without art is no life at all. It's the way I can express my inner-self and its also the only way I can communicate to others, especially the public. Art is my world, using colors of brotherhood, green symbolizing greener pastures in Africa, black symbolizing Black Africa, and yellow symbolizing Sunny Africa. These colors make my paintings have four major aspects: Brotherhood, Unity, the Beauty of Africa and Sunshine."