Sanaa Gateja is a mixed-media artist and jewellery designer who is widely known for his signature incorporation of recycled man-made waste materials in his practice, particularly his pioneering fashioning of beads from discarded paper, which earned him the nickname ‘The Bead King’ in Uganda.
He also works with bark cloth, paper, raffia, wood and banana fiber, using his materials to construct medium-scale to large experimental abstract pieces that straddle installation, tapestry and sculpture and strike a balance between aesthetic and conceptual value. Gateja allows the material to speak in its own micro-cosmos and ‘weaves’ them into abstract narratives commenting on social and political realities in his home country Uganda.
Gateja studied interior design in Italy and Jewellery Design at Goldsmiths in London. He has exhibited extensively across Africa and internationally, including at Karma Gallery, NYC, ARCOlisboa, INVESTEC Cape Town Art Fair, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Art Paris, AKAA Paris, Themes & Variations London, the Museum of Art and Design New York and at the 58th Carnegie International.
Selected Press:
Marcus Gavin for Bomb Magazine: Making art with paper beads and barkcloth. 2023
Sarah Souli for WePresent: Sanaa Gateja - Carving a path in the East African craft movement. 2022.
Pamela Bentley for Art Africa Magazine: Something like a Constellation. 2019.
Arctic Paper: Interview with Sanaa Gateja: He fights Poverty in Uganda through Art. 2018.