Doudou Mbemba lives and works in Kinshasa. His entire family has a natural talent for drawing, but he is the only one who made it a passion of life until being an artist became his career.
He bears the pseudonym of Douze because he is the twelfth of a family of thirteen children. As a student in the Institut du 30 Juin Kinshasa, he spent his time drawing instead of taking his classes. His class was attached to the office of the Director of studies who was intrigued by his attitude. Being a professor at the Institut des Beaux-Arts, at the end of the year, he took him and enrolled him there without the advice of his parents. He obtained his baccalaureate in Visual Arts, speciality in painting. He then continued his training at the Academie des Beaux Arts until his graduation. He graduated with a degree in painting. His desire to do well led him to the Botembe workshops to increase his knowledge of painting. And there, he was influenced by the great painters who worked there. A lack of space in the workshops pushed everyone to evolve on their own.
2007 was the year that propelled him as a professional painter. That year he won the third place JUA KALI painting prize at the Institute of Kinshasa. He won a first prize at the November salon and he exhibited at the Pro Credit Bank; all during the same year. He had a solo exhibition in South Africa and in 2008, he took part in the Biennale of Dak’art. In 2011, he took part in the Art for Peace exhibition in Johannesburg along with the great names of the Congolese art scene. Then In 2013, he exhibited in TMB, “Echos of the Women.” and in 2015, he exhibited at the Pullman Hotel, “Traffic Jam.” In 2016, he was in residence in Belgium and in 2017, he exhibited in Brazzaville, “Libanda.”
Mbemba is a tireless worker who has dedicated his life to his work as a painter. The canvas has become his second life in which he expresses his vision of world politics, his astonishment at the inequalities between men, his observation of a failing humanity, his anxieties for dying nature, his fight for human brotherhood to persevere and finally his steadfast hope for a better world.