Peter Oloya Ugandan, b. 1976

Born in Uganda, Peter Oloya was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army whilst still a child and was brutally forced into being a 'boy soldier'. He managed to escape after being wounded in a bush battle but with his hometown ruined and his family suffering great losses Oloya felt compelled to return to the teachings of his grandmother, and with great determination used art as a way to educate himself and to heal the emotional wounds such violence creates. 

Carving curios and working as a DJ to pay first his school and later his university fees, Oloya has set up his own charity to help other boy soldiers and abducted girls through drawing and sculpture. Oloya works widely across painting and sculpture and graduated from Makerere University in Fine Art. He has since completed numerous commissions and residencies and his sculpture Crane was the gift of the Uganda people to Her Majesty the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Uganda in 2007. Other prestigious commissions followed such as the 'African Footballer of the Year' BBC award trophy.