Joseph Kinkonda, called Cheri Cherin, was born on Febr. 16th, 1955 in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic Congo, formerly called Zaire).
He studied 1977 at the Academie des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa under the Austrian ceramics-artist Peter Weihs. During this time he started to paint posters in his residential-quarter Ndjili. He created pictures on the walls of bars, barbershops and small boutiques. Besides, he created impressive pictures of daily life and also paintings with very serious content. Today he is one of the best-known painters in Kinshasa and a teacher to many young talented artists.