Donald Wasswa's multidisciplinary practice explores processes of social and environmental transformation, influences of science and technology, and the changing nature of communication in contemporary societies. Spontaneous encounters with natural or found objects shape his research, with these objects, claimed as art materials, becoming carriers of memories and places. Wasswa's objects suffer various forms of interference by carving, assembling and arranging, resulting in sculptural forms, three-dimensional paintings and installations. Through this process of material transformation, Wasswa imagines the secret lives of man-made objects and how they might in turn determine future humans.
Donald Wasswa studied Sculpture at Kyambogo University and has exhibited widely in Uganda and internationally. Selected exhibitions include Matière à Abstraction, Galerie Christophe Person, Paris (2026); East African Encounters, Cromwell Place, London (2021); Degenerative Evolution of the Living, Absa Art Gallery, Johannesburg (2018); To Live Is to Become, Afriart Gallery, Kampala (2017); and Zikunta, Kampala (2016). Wasswa was selected to participate in the Ouagadougou Sculpture Biennial in 2019 and has exhibited at several international art fairs, including the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2019, 2022, and 2025), and Untitled Art Fair, Miami, with Steve Turner Gallery (2022). He received the Merit Award in the Absa L'Atelier competition in 2016 and participated in the Fondation Blachère Residency, France, in 2023. In September 2026, he will take part in The Armory Show with Circle Art Gallery.
His work is held in the ARAK Collection and has been featured in publications including Colossal, which profiled his practice in the article "Donald Wasswa's Delicate Wooden Creatures Emerge from a Speculative Future" (2025). Wasswa lives and works in Kampala, where he is the founder and proprietor of Artpunch Studio.
