Xenson (Samson Ssenkaaba) is a Kampala-based multimedia artist who uses sculpture, installation, performance, poetry, graffiti, fashion, and painting to engage with questions of identity, consumerism and global circulation of culture against a backdrop of a dystopian postcolonial present.

He deliberately deploys a candied aesthetic of vivid colours and graphic patterns, simultaneously enabling and rejecting identification with his subjects, aiming for visual narratives which reflect the complexity of contemporary culture. Xenson often uses found and recycled materials, responding directly to what his environment offers him and integrating his work into global discourses surrounding humanity’s impact on the natural environment.

Similarly, his upbringing and childhood memories inform his use of organic and natural materials such as bark cloth — a commitment to preserving indigenous knowledge and expressions whilst applying this aesthetics in contemporary use.

Xenson has exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale Uganda Pavilion (2024), NCAI Spark Art Fair Vienna (2025), Nairobi Kenya (2024), Molitor artist cabin project France (2024), Afriart Gallery Uganda (2024, 2022, 2017, 2016, 2012), Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2014), and the Kampala Art Biennial (2016). He received his BFA from the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts, Makerere University. His work is held in the Scottish Museum and Minneapolis Museum of Art collections.

Xenson is the founder of Xenson Art Space, a multidisciplinary curated space aimed at nurturing the new creative generation.