In love with "Kikwembe", a loincloth in Kiswahili, Mélissa Mujinga is a painter who lives and works in Lubumbashi. A graduate in plastic arts from the Institute of Fine Arts of Lubumbashi, Melissa has assisted several artists at the last biennial of Lubumbashi.
Thanks to the educational orientation of her parents, Mélissa defines painting as a part of her. Painting for pleasure or for passion, she is attracted by fabric patterns in general. Her main inspiration: the printed loincloth.
With the motivation of improving the situation of women, Mujinga questions through her works the identity of the African woman in general and the Congolese woman in particular, with the appropriation of the loincloth in the background.
She has participated in various cultural events such as collective exhibitions, fairs or Picha learning workshops. In June 2021, she organized an exhibition entitled "Kikwembe" at the Pullman Grand Karavia in Lubumbashi.
In 2022, she is working on a project entitled "Filamu Society Phytoremediation" to be exhibited at the 7th Biennale of Lubumbashi. This project consists of presenting paintings retracing the history of cinema and on the plants used to heal polluted soil.