The intersection of arts & culture, technology, and innovation has the potential to redefine our lifestyles and reinvigorate the human spirit. By now, it is abundantly clear that stories have the power to control the future. There is a group of contemporary Kenyan artists retelling the story of Kenya, and that of Africa, by extension. These artists are producing works and engaging in projects that analyze, contextualize, and deconstruct what it means to be living in Kenya – bit by bit shifting the narrative away from the stereotype that characterizes African countries solely as hubs of poverty, starvation, and conflict. Instead, these Kenyan artists emphasize the innovation, richness, and diversity of contemporary Kenyan culture. In this article, we highlight 10 of these contemporary Kenyan artists you ought to know.
Osborne Macharia
A self-taught Kenyan commercial photographer and digital artist, Osborne Macharia is known for his Afrofuturistic works that explore the intersection of the African cultural identity with science, technology, and forms of otherworldliness. Born in 1986 in Nairobi, Osborne Macharia has been active in the Kenyan contemporary art space since 2010. Over the years he has had his works showcased and featured by platforms such as Vogue, Marie Claire, Coke, Afro Punk, and BBC among others. He has also worked with Disney’s Marvel, having created original artwork for the film Black Panther. In 2018, Macharia created original artwork for the US television drama Queen Sugar, an American drama television series created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay, with Oprah Winfrey serving as an executive producer.
Michael Soi
Michael Soi is a multi-dimensional Kenyan contemporary artist who has had works exhibited in countries across the globe such as Ghana, Denmark, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea, and South Africa, with some of these showings coming in the backdrop of him having attended residencies in the said countries. Michael Soi is widely known for his satirical depictions and commentary on Kenyan social issues. Soi has been active in the contemporary art scene since 1995.
Thandiwe Muriu
Thandiwe Muriu is a self-taught Kenyan fine art photographer. In her interview with Vogue, Thandiwe speaks of taking her first steps into the world of photography at 14 years old when her father taught her and her siblings how to us a digital camera. This was the moment that awakened her long held desire to create art and put it out into the world. She speaks of photography as her way of making sense and responding to the world around her.
Thandiwe’s skill at showcasing vibrant African textiles and using them to create surreal illusions with the aim of exploring African identity is unparalleled. Thandiwe who was born in 1990 has previously been termed as Kenya’s first female commercial photographer. According to Thandiwe, her images are ‘a direct reflection of the warmth and friendliness of the people of Kenya’. Thandiwe’s recent project ‘Camo’ celebrates the beauty of her cultural experiences.
Wangechi Mutu
Arguably the most famous Kenyan contemporary artist, Wangechi Mutu has in the past twenty years in part centred her visual art to explore femininity and misrepresentation of Black women in contemporary society. Having lived in New York for most of her career, Wangechi Mutu is the founder of Brooklyn headquartered Africa’s Out!, an initiative aimed at transforming how we collectively interact with Africa, with a specific focus on enhancing the ways in which Africans support and empower each other.
Mutu’s surreal work has largely been categorized as Afrofuturist due to its heavy coverage of the intersection between humans and machines. Her art is a journey of discovery and visual intrigue. A trained sculptor and anthropologist, Wangechi’s work seems to exist out of time. It could be placed in the past and fit like a glove to a hand. It could also be beamed to the future and still find meaning.
Cyrus Kabiru
Cyrus Kabiru is a 39 year old self-taught Kenyan artist from Nairobi who blends fashion with sculpture and photography. He has previously had works exhibited in spaces such as the Studio Museum Harlem, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art alongside other avenues in Nairobi, Netherlands and South Africa as well.
Kabiru, who has in the past involved himself with documentary films as well, creatively uses recycled rubbish and old material mostly collected in the streets of Nairobi to explore the theme of transformation and imagination of the future from an African Perspective. Kabiru is the founder of Kabiru Creatives Art Hub through which he supports upcoming artists in Nairobi and beyond.
Arlene Wandera
A London based Kenyan visual artist, Arlene Wandera uses discarded or forgotten items and materials to create art that explores her nostalgia and the conflict between her Kenyan heritage and life in the U.K. Arlene together with a friend Richard Zeiss form the collective Duck & Rabbit Projects, whose main aim they term as an attempt to try and see how two people from different cultural backgrounds can come up with a similar artistic experience.
Arlene has had her work exhibited before in the Kenya Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and also the Dak’Art Biennale. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Fine Art, London.
Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga
Considered one of Kenya’s pioneer artists and born in 1960, Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga is a Kenyan visual artist and sculptor who uses textured sheet metal, tin cans, and steel wire to create wall-hanging sculptures. She also uses rope or string similarly to the ones her ancestors used to weave baskets and she claims to do so in order to remain intertwined with her history. Naomi has exhibited her artwork in countries across the world including the United States, U.K, Poland, Brazil, France and South Africa.
In 2016 and 2017, she was shortlisted for the Financial Times’s Oppenheimer Funds Emerging Voices Awards.
Paul Onditi
Paul Onditi is a Kenyan contemporary and Postwar artist born in 1980. He studied art at the University of Design in Offenbach am Main in Germany where he lived for ten years from 2000 to 2010 before returning to Nairobi. His artwork is mostly executed on digital polyester plates that seek to explore a variety of issues affecting humanity. He has previously claimed of his art as an attempt to counter the European perception that African art should be ‘tribal’, indigenous and rural.
Paul has exhibited his artwork at the Afriart Gallery which is a Kampala based arts gallery, the Dak’Art Biennale in Senegal , VOLTA New York, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, An Imaginary City in Rome and 50 Golborne in London among other places across the globe.
Peterson Kamwathi
One of Kenya’s most highly regarded artists, Peterson Kamwathi’s work has been exhibited in venues around the world including in the UK, the USA, El Salvador, Netherlands, Austria , Finland and other countries. Born in 1980, Kamwathi who is a graduate in animation from Shang Tao Media Arts College, creates artwork which hints at surrealism yet remains with clear and easily discernible symbolism to the day to day life happenings, challenges and societal issues.
In recent years his art has shifted to become more on sociological reflection rather than a political assertion. Peterson lives and works from Limuru, Kenya.
Michael Armitage
Based in the U.K but born in Kenya, Michael Armitage mainly paints on a Lubugo, a traditional bark cloth from Uganda. His artwork is mainly an iconography of the history of East Africa and the cultural practices of the region.
Michael, who holds a Bachelor in Fine arts from the Slade School of Fine Art, London and a Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Academy Schools in London as well, recently collaborated with the Royal Mint to design a new £1 coin for the United Kingdom.
