we paint Sierra Leone back to itself.

In a city where "be a doctor or a lawyer" is still the loudest advice given to children, two Sierra Leonean painters decided to be neither.

Bondumani Art was founded in Freetown by Sahr Songu Mbriwa — an internationally collected hyperrealistic oil painter — and Aishatu Jalloh, a full-time visual artist with a sharp eye for colour and a softer one for stories. Together they built a place where fabric gets painted like canvas, children learn that brushes are professional tools, and walls in Freetown stop asking to be ignored.

We are a gallery, a studio, a commission house, a classroom, and occasionally — when the bamboo village fills up — a quiet place to sleep.