Veda Kagabo

Artist Statement

Memory is a recurring presence in my work—not as a clear record of the past, but as something that shifts, fades, and sometimes returns unexpectedly. My experiences of displacement, loss, and living across different cultures have led me to reflect on what it means to belong, what we carry with us, and what remains after a place or a way of life has disappeared.

I work primarily in abstraction because some experiences cannot be fully explained through recognizable images or words. I build my paintings slowly, using layers of color, texture, gesture, and erasure. I often cover what I have painted and allow only fragments to remain. Through this process, distant horizons, pathways, architectural forms, and fields of light begin to emerge. They may suggest real places, but they are not maps of a particular landscape. They belong somewhere between memory, imagination, and lived experience.

Light is central to my work. It does not represent an easy answer or a promise that everything will be resolved. I see it as something more fragile and persistent—the inner force that survives during uncertainty, grief, and profound change. Darkness and silence are equally important. They hold what is difficult to name: absence, longing, separation, and the emotional traces left by people and places.

Although my work is rooted in my own history, I do not want it to remain confined to my story. I leave space for viewers to enter the paintings through their own memories and questions. The meaning of a work may shift depending on who stands before it and what they bring with them.

Ultimately, my practice is about the human need to make meaning after disruption. I paint within the space between loss and renewal, between what can be remembered and what can never be recovered. In that uncertain space, I continue to search for connection, resilience, and new ways of imagining home.