If you are an ardent movie lover, you will realize that some of them have scenes where great art pieces are auctioned at crazy prices but unfortunately the art industry in Uganda is not there yet; fully; but slowly headed. Some people are making a living out of it but not as much as in the movies. Lister Brian Kansiime is a 24 year old self-taught artist. He says that he must have been given a pencil at birth because he has been doing it for as long as he can remember.

Unfortunately, Lister didn’t study art at university. He studied International business at Nakawa based university, MUBS. This is also where he started to go commercial with his art to earn money to pay his tuition, hostel fees and carter for his everyday needs. He sells an A3 piece at 200,000shs, a framed couple piece at 350,000shs, and simple soft copies go for 50,000shs.

Art requires a lot of time and it suits him because he is an introvert so he would rather spend 80 hours coming up with a master piece as opposed to bar hoping like some pulsers do at the moment. Lister has worked on art pieces for Anita Fabiola, Sheila Gashumba, Drake, and many other people. He is currently working on a piece to submit to the Bic Art Master African competition and who knows, he might be making news for Uganda that way; the sky is the limit for him.

In the next couple of years, Lister hopes to go from just doing pen and pencil art to painting and photography. This would require him to open his own gallery to showcase his art and also inspire more pulsers in Uganda to take on art. For now you can see some of his work by buying a pulse data bundle by dialing *157# and following him on Instagram.

Instagram: @thee_ugandan_artist for his work and @__lister_jr his personal account