Ice-cream man sells Happiness (2025) Painting by Ngendo

Ice-cream man sells happiness is a meditation on the multiplicity of what constitutes a “good life,” and how that notion is deeply shaped by geography, circumstance, memory, and aspiration. At its center is the quiet poetry of contrast—a man selling ice cream in South Sudan’s desert coexists with a woman hiking through the snow-draped forests of North America. These moments, though vastly different in setting, are equal in their quiet pursuit of joy, stability, and meaning. Using a collage of fabric, copper wire, aluminum, and found images, the painting navigates between these lived realities, holding space for both hardship and hope.

Obscured phrases —“Are dreams what we make them?” and “Or reality what you see”—become philosophical hinges in the work, urging the viewer to reconsider the nature of aspiration, belief, and perception. Figures carrying firewood echo subsistence and migration, while symbols of holiday abundance, tinsel, and lace speak to comfort and consumer ritual. The Statue of Liberty—pocked, faded—stands before pyramids and beneath a copper-wire rollercoaster, hinting at the volatility of ideals and the illusions of freedom or success. Mushrooms and spores remind us of our unseen entanglements—how people, ideas, and histories drift, take root, and bloom across borders. Beneath a deceptively sweet sky, this piece asks: in a world of uneven dreams and shared needs, how do we define happiness, and who gets to claim it?

Related themes

Good-Life