Another Local Western New York Artist You Need to Know: Joel Mulindwa
- haleyindorato
- May 1
- 4 min read
When I saw Joel Mulindwa was having a solo show at Gallery at Seneca in Buffalo I knew I had to go. I came across Joel’s Instagram page somehow (algorithm might be useful for once?) and fell in love with his work. He is definitely one of my favorite artists in the Western New York area, and I think one of the best. I want more people to know he exists and to see his work.
Joel is finishing up his MFA this year from University of Buffalo. I was able to talk to him for a bit at the packed reception for his show, “finding rest”. Just like me, he said he started off purely focused on painting, and transitioned into drawings. We both agreed drawing was painting adjacent. He’s now really interested in making films; literally with a film video camera. I’m excited to see what work he makes going forward, but for now I’ll explain why I like his drawings so much.
Joel’s drawings are everything I would hope for in my own work. His technique is tangible, highlights the material, is potentially modernist inspired. (I absolutely love his reference to Van Gogh’s “The Postman”, and many pieces give off similar vibes as c. 1910 Matisse paintings of rooms with their color and distortion). The subjects are contemporary, common people, places, and things. The overlooked are being looked at. The spaces they occupy inform the viewers about who they are. Most of the time they are employees working a lower wage job. People society skips over.
It seems to me, in portraiture there can be a sense of reluctance to depict people while they’re at work. Few people may want to be represented as they are at work. Yet all of us work to survive. Have a job to pay the bills. And while we are at that job is probably how most people will come to understand us. As a minimum wage worker myself. I meet and interact with more people at my job than I do as an artist or in my free time. But I would never want others to understand me as a barista or retail worker. In Joel’s pastels, he manages to capture people in their work environment we would typically encounter them in. The marks of the pastels add some tangibility to the image and therefore some realness to the sitter. They also distort the figures and their environment. Suggesting constructed space, constructed roles, only part of an understanding. There is something very human in being imperfect, messy, and flawed. And that’s what seems to come through in Joels work.
I also am obsessed with the series of tip jar drawings. Like his larger work, I’m personally attracted to all the stuff in each one. My favorite one has all the lucky cats. These smaller drawings hang next to each other on the same wall in a grid pattern in the gallery. This allows viewers to easily compare tip jars. I was drawn to the empty tip jars, or ones with a few cents. I used to work at Starbucks, and I made about 60 cents per hour I worked in tips. The only jobs that have tips are usually the minimum wage ones as well. Not to mention server wages, which are crazy. If you’re good you can make like $20 an hour on average after tips, but before tips it’s like $9 an hour? And don't get me started on the national minimum wage of $7 an hour!
Most of this work focuses on “lower class” labor. Drawing is a more accessible, “lower importance” art that is extremely foundational to all other art forms. Much like how the jobs and people depicted are some of the most important members of society. Our daily life and current society wouldn’t function very well without them. What would happen without all the janitors, clerical workers, Amazon drivers? Tucked away in a small room of the gallery were two more of Joel’s drawings. They take place in a domestic space and depict family. Parents raising a child; the most invisible, thankless job.
This brings me back to the title of the show, “finding rest.” Every single person depicted in Joel’s work is briefly resting. Some sitters are in generic rooms that could be a break room or a home. Some have a calm moment to sit between tasks at work. A mother has time to nap between taking care of her child, and presumably another job of her own.
There is pleasure in looking at Joel's work. From the colors, the mark making. Perhaps some pleasure comes second hand; from seeing and understanding these busy people have a second to rest and catch their breath. And I feel like it gives us, the viewer, a second as well.
Follow Joel on Instragram @jowelloart
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