Conversations in Cape Town with one of top10 emerging artists, Cinthia Cifa Mulanga

What is the conversation that your artworks carry?

Um, it’s mostly expression of whatever I’ve experienced or what I’ve observed in society as a whole. Some kind of representation of certain aspects like the whole conversation of womanhood and what happens in those times from like a very young age to what that is possibly like when a young black woman grows up.

How did all start?

It started off as just talking about beauty like the Barbie doll and like the lifestyle of a Barbie doll, versus how I grew up and wanting my life to be.

Then delving deep into the construct of the Barbie doll. It completely changed my perspective on toys, on representation, and obviously added the standards and the misrepresentation of black women as a whole.

But my work is very broad, it’s not only picking on to like one thing, at some point it also picks up on race but also on topics like pretty privilege because you are treated very differently when you look a certain way.

What is the story you’ve lived as opposed to social constructs on what stories we are told we will live?

So when growing up playing with barbie dolls you obviously envy almost the lifestyle of this toy and what it could possibly stand for. And so when you grow up you aspire to kind of live like that and then when you’re in the real world it doesn’t work like that because firstly you realize your skin tone is not the same as the barbie tone. So you don’t get the same treatment, the same access and things like that.

The previous time that we talked, you were at your house with your niece, today you’re with your sister, and yesterday you were with them both. Your work is very connected to women. How is your relationship with yout sister?

I think it’s pretty interesting how, I think, it’s either you’re the only one, or one of few who actually asked a question like that.

Growing up with my family, I was always with my brother and with my sister. I think my mom has made sure that we are super close, no matter how we argue or if we get through certain things, we’re always together. And so it’s very evident that wherever I go, you always see my sister or my brother there with me. I think I’m very family-oriented, one of the ways to know me is through my family.

And so my mom, my sister, in a way, I do add essence of them in my work, but not necessarily having to paint them. Like one of the works that I did for Gucci, I painted myself and also my sister within the work. And yeah, it was like a whole family affair.

They kind of also ground me, and sometimes, if I’m acting out of pocket, they will humble me right then and there, so I think it’s good.. they keep me in check!

Why are the scenes you paint mainly in interiors?

The fact that the environment is like a house or a home or an interior gave me the impression that the characters are related somehow, or that maybe it is the same person in different moments, or maybe they had a very good connection, which maybe is also the same.

Who are all these women that you paint?

Mostly the different women that you see in the work are different representations of women. But in a way, I wanted to be seen as there are like one. One woman at different stages. So she could be on the couch and the next thing she’s by the window looking outside, which is something I always have in the work.

They look different by just appearance, but in the works is the same woman. And there are different extensions of me as well (in fact at the begining I was taking pictures of myself as a reference to paint the different women in the work), maybe at some point I add myself as well there.

But the point of the works is not the exterior of the woman, we only speak on the beauty of women, but I want to delve deeper into what a woman is.

What do you think defines a woman?

There is a lot, but for me I would say her values, her principles, and that’s also another thing that kind of anchors the work, because I also speak on certain characteristics. So there was a work that I did with Goodman, my first solo exhibition in 2022. I titled the work “Mold Me”. In that work, there was like a bunch of clothes on the floor and it had like a very long couch and the perspective is like fish eyes, so it’s like very wide. And so you have all these figures sitting on the couch and then it’s like clothes and certain objects on the floor.

That work was about the certain things that surround us and add to our character and what those things are and so when you go closer to the work you see what those things are, like products, and certain brands and so it’s more of like women are a way of the things they consume because it makes them therefore somehow defined.

So the things that can define women, values and principles but also what surrounds them.

Given the importance you give to women and family, can I ask you about your mom?

I was born in Congo, and so my mom owned a hair and beauty salon and whenever she would have clients by, I would just sit in the corner or under the table picking certain things. So whenever she would make a dress, I would pick those pieces and keep that for my dolls whenever I go home. So like the doll is a very important thing here as well.

I would see different women coming in and out of my mom’s salon, whatever, it’s makeup and nails and all of that.

Attend the conversations that were happening in the salon, I mean I was too young to understand or remember some of the conversations. But it was very exciting and very intriguing, like the conversation of marriage or work.

So the Salon of your mother was a space for conversations on what is important for those women.

Exactly!

I would just sit there and gather all of these conversations together so I’m in a way as a child you’re absorbing that and then you have a whole library of all of these conversations.

And then we moved to South Africa. My mom then started just renting a chair to do hair and all of that. Which was a difference. Going from owning your own salon to now having to rent a chair, it was kind of a struggle.

So the women in my work are just existing, and the works on the wall, within the work, are posing as challenges or topics that bear or that the women within the work is confronted to in her life.

Each work seems very rich, with a lot of different elements.

I added all, like it’s a very complex world. Because women are also very complex in the way that we’re not the same, we don’t think the same way. There’s a particular system in us that links us together, but we are unique in our own ways, we like different things, different points, and yeah, I think that’s another way of me saying that, and that’s okay, because there’s a standard of beauty in society that’s there. And so I’m there to kind of challenge that conversation or picture and say, there’s women in my work that look different and they just exist, they’re beautiful as they are. Obviously there’s different conversations that happen in the work. With each work there’s a different conversation and yeah, it’s very complex as the woman is.

How did you feel as a top10 most promising artists working today from the Artsy vanguard list?

I was very shocked and I felt very seen, like recognized as an artist. And I was thinking that there’s so many people that are actually seeing the works and it’s not because we get so caught up in like social media, Instagram followers, likes and all of that, that we forget that there are people at the end of the day that are actually following your work and your career whether or not they follow your ssmm profile. There are people who are watching.

Yeah, it’s been an honor.

What do you want to explore?

I am drawn by artists who do interior spaces, of course, by default, but also I love abstracts. I love the weird kind of art as well, because it keeps you thinking. I think it’s different, different arts for different reasons, different purposes, different moments. But mostly it’s mediums that I want to explore, different kinds of mediums.

Have you already done like some other mediums or are you in the process?

Yes, and I’m glad that we’re speaking about that because it’s the Cape Town Art Fair and you will see a new medium. It’s a multimedia NFT. We just recently collaborated with Usurpa. It’s a digital art gallery. It’s been a very fun process you will see hopefully that we also see your Cape Town

What I love about digital media is that you can really do whatever you want: You don’t have to stick to any rules, physics or logics.

Exactly. Yeah. There’s so many possibilities with that.

Title: Conversations in Cape Town with one of top10 emerging artists, Cinthia Cifa Mulanga

Type: Interview / Artist Portrait

Published: [Insert platform or “Unpublished”]

Description:

An intimate conversation with a rising painter whose figurative interiors explore the complexities of womanhood, Black identity, and familial memory. Touching on Barbie dolls, salon culture, pretty privilege, and the aesthetics of domestic life, the artist unpacks the layers behind her work—from childhood recollection to digital experimentation—and how each painting becomes both personal narrative and social mirror.