Cinga Samson Oonomboyi 4 2026

Based on a painting by Cinga Samson, this print, titled Ooonomboyi 4, depicts a man-like figure dressed in a fair isle cardigan and clutching a silk scarf. In spite of the technical mastery, convincing realism, and portrait-esque composition that appears to invite interpretation, Samson toys with the notion that the image can only ever be a relative symbol of what it reflects, never its equivalent. The silk scarf, the gold chain, the patterned jumper are among a constellation of representational motifs which gesture not towards specific interpretation or a single, stable meaning, but instead to the gulf that exists between static sign and fluid experience.

The figure appears to confront the viewer, yet in the artist’s signature style, the eyes are pupilless – devoid of the intricate detail found in every other inch of the composition. An exemplary element of Samson’s oeuvre, the motif of the pupilless eye is deployed to allow the circulation of light across the picture plane, creating a porosity that permits these eyes to become ‘completely one with the painting’, as the artist notes. Without pupils, the figure in Ooonomboyi 4 is not formally codified as ‘human’, instead an approximation of a figural form enmeshed with the entirety of the composition.

For Samson, the small, portrait form is a vehicle for intimacy – a way of creating a private moment between the work and whoever stands before it. As the original painting this edition is based on remains in Samson’s personal collection, this print offers a singular opportunity to hold that encounter permanently.

Oonomboyi 4 was printed by Leslie Diuguid, master printer and founder of Du-Good Press – New York’s first Black female-owned fine art screen printing business. The print was created by hand, using 30 colours to meticulously construct the delicate colour and tonal ranges that characterise Samson’s work, honouring the labour-intensive process and commitment to exacting detail employed in the making of the original painting.

Each print replicates Samson’s chromatic depth and is finished with a water-based varnish, bringing the work into dialogue with the lustrous surfaces of Samson’s paintings. Reflecting the artist’s signature occluded palette, the varnish accentuates the palpable materiality of the underlying cotton paper and layers of ink.