“My work explores identity as a reflection of time—how we evolve, remember, adapt, and carry the traces of cultures in motion. Through layered ink portraits, I search for what is sacred, what is changing, and what remains.”
Lamich Kirabo is a visual artist born and raised in Uganda, currently living and working in Paris, France. Her practice centers on figurative ink paintings created through a unique technique of layering multiple colored ink pigments on paper or canvas. This method allows her to build vivid, emotive portraits that often appear suspended in time—caught between stillness and motion, presence and reflection.
Lamich’s work is deeply rooted in her experiences growing up in Uganda amid rapid cultural shifts and increasing Western influence. Her portraits explore how identity is shaped across generations, what is preserved or transformed through these changes, and how people navigate continuity and disruption. Influenced by natural laws and cycles—of time, decay, renewal—she approaches culture and identity as organic, ever-evolving systems rather than fixed concepts.
Her choice of portraiture is intentional: a tool to investigate the abstraction of self and the fluidity of personal and collective identity. By placing her figures on stark, minimalist backgrounds, she removes them from fixed space or context, emphasizing their universality and timelessness.
In 2024, Lamich held her first solo exhibition, Where Do I End, Where Do You Begin, at the Salomon Lilian Gallery in Amsterdam. Her work continues to develop as an introspective and imaginative exploration of memory, cultural evolution, and the human spirit.
Growing up in an artistic environment—her father was an architect and designer—Lamich was immersed in craft and creativity from an early age. Living behind her father's shop, where African interior design and handmade objects were created and sold, she absorbed a visual and tactile language that became foundational to her way of seeing the world. Art, for her, is more than expression—it’s a way of being, a means to understand and communicate with the world beyond words.