Born in 1925 in Kilumba, Katanga Province.
Was part of the Hangar workshop in the 1950s.
Died in 1999 in Lubumbashi, Katanga Province.
The son of a weaver, Mwenze Kibwanga attended the Protestant mission school in Mwanza (Katanga province) from 1934, where he took drawing lessons. In 1942, he moved to Elisabethville and studied with the Methodists for two years before earning his living by drawing, mainly portraits. He quickly abandoned this approach after joining the Hangar workshop. There, he developed his own aesthetic, alternating dark and light hatching to represent humans, animals, and plants. He developed this “sculptural painting” style, drawing inspiration from traditional sculptors.
Upon the death of Pierre-Romains Desfossés, he joined the Elisabethville Academy of Fine Arts with Pilipili Mulongoy and Sylvestre Kaballa. Unlike Bela and Pilipili Mulongoy, he favored the human figure and incorporated personal feelings into his paintings, thus distancing himself from simple representation.
