Cinga Samson’s practice often lies within figurativism where he derives from his own image to achieve his oil paintings. Samson’s work is defined both by its subject matter as well as its artistic style where he draws on the tradition of painting while exploring contemporary preoccupations. Although his figures take after his own image Samson is clear that he is not only representing himself but those he belongs to as well—his community. Using the natural world (plants, flowers, hills, the landscape) around him, Samson lays bare the complexities and tensions between the secular and the surreal, mystery and the known, darkness and beauty.

To date, Samson has held four solo exhibitions at blank projects: NaluLwandle, NaliKhaya (2019), Safari Fantasy (2017), Ubugqoboka Magqoboka (2016) and Thirty Pieces of Silver (2015). In 2020, he had a solo show with Perrotin Gallery in New York, titled AMADODA AKAFANI, AFANA NGEENTSHEBE ZODWA. He has participated in several group shows, including; Who Are We Are Who (BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne, 2020); Mapping Black Identities(Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, 2019); Hacer Noche (Centro Cultural Santo Domingo, Oaxaca de Juarez, 2018); open agenda (blank projects, Cape Town, 2018); A Painting Today (Stevenson, Cape Town, 2017); In the night I remember (Stevenson, Johannesburg, 2013); Our Fathers (AVA Gallery, Cape Town, 2012); and Strata at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town (2011), where he completed a residency. In 2017, Samson won the prestigious Tollman Award, and in 2018 he exhibited with Nicholas Hlobo at the Maitland Institute, in a two-person show titled Umthamo.