Echo of the Unknown

Echo of the Unknown is a 16 x 20 inch acrylic painting that captures the spectral silence between memory, myth, and mystery. In this work, John C. Ndupu fuses expressionism with African spiritual motifs, crafting a figure that feels both present and distant — like a messenger from another dimension or time.

A translucent face, masked in cryptic emotion, hovers within a veil of textured strokes. Earthy tones clash with sharp whites and subtle cosmic accents, creating a tension between visibility and concealment. As with many of Ndupu’s works, Uli and Nsibidi-inspired forms drift around the central image — not to explain, but to evoke.

This painting speaks in a visual language older than words. Echo of the Unknown asks not who we are, but what we carry — from ancestors, from dreams, from places that can’t be mapped. It is a meditative portrait of transformation, presence, and the silence of truths not yet spoken.