Beatrice Wanjiku
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Wanjiku was born in Nairobi in 1978. She received her diploma from Nairobi's Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts in 2000 and is now a rising star on the Kenyan contemporary art scene.
Her works explore and interrogate themes about the shifting nature of human beings, existentialism, our capacity for consciousness, self-awareness and ability to overcome external controls on behavior and ultimately our inherent ability to transform. Her works offer an insight into the eternal quest to understand our realities. To date her works fall into four distinct phases, starting with the 'Mortality' series. In her work of this period, she explores questions of mortality, immortality and identity arising from the experience of a profound loss. In her next phase, X-ray prints appear as if she is attempting to peer into the very soul of her subject. There is a recurring theme through much of her later work, which sometimes show a sense of urgency and frustration, and the need to strip away the carapace of the facade or to touch the tenderness of an internal reality; at times her work echoes an easement to acceptance and understanding this truth. The third phase bears the influences of her three month residency in Vermont, USA. The 'Occupy' movement was entrenched in Wall Street at the time. A collage of newspaper clippings and icons of America are layered into the canvases she produced during this period. The last phase continues the search for the soul. With weeping teeth, internal conflict and titles such as 'The Strangeness of My Madness', it admits to being an introspection of an altogether more personal nature. Wanjiku lives and works in Nairobi. |
Selection of works
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Selected Exhibitions2017 - VOLTA New York, Invitational Solo Presentation Project Fair, USA
2016 - 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York 2016 - 'Divine Discontent' (A Straightjacket Series) - One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2015 - Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner – Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York 2015 - “The African Tree” The OSTRALE 2015 - Dresden, Germany 2015 - KunstRAI 2015 Edition 31 2015 - “Concerning the Internal”, Circle Art Agency, Nairobi 2015 - Creativity Gallery, Nairobi National Museum 2015 - ‘Welcome Back From London,” One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi 2014 - “Pop up Africa”, Gallery of African Art, Cork Street, London, UK 2014 - "Beauty & Ugliness", One off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2014 - "Paper", Circle Art Agency, Nairobi, Kenya 2013 - Devearts’ Meaning Africa, Weissenbruchzaal, Pulchri Studio, Hague, Netherlands 2013 - “Africa Now”, African Modern & Contemporary Art and a charity auction of Kenyan Contemporary Art. 101 Bond Street, London, UK 2012 - Funika - Fufuka/Cover- Recover, Belgium Ambassadors Residence, Nairobi, Kenya 2012 - Solo Exhibition, One off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2010 - “Africa: The Mother of Us All”, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, USA 2010 - “Politics of Art and The Art of Politics”, video installation, Kuona Trust, Nairobi, Kenya 2009 - “Artist without Borders” Triangle exhibition 2009 - Solo Exhibition, RaMoMA Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi, Kenya 2008 - "Africa Now", The World Bank, Washington DC, USA 2008 - “How I like it,” artist initiative for the displaced 2008 - Contemporary Art in Kenya 2 years on. French Cultural Centre |
2007 - “Three some”, The Godown Art Center, Nairobi, Kenya
2006 - “Africa Within: Many Eyes One Soul”, The Royal Commonwealth Society, London, UK 2005 - Bankside Gallery London, UK 2004 - “Utopia”, RaMoMA Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi, Kenya Residency2013 - Djerassi Residency Artist Program, San Francisco USA
2011 - The Vermont Studio Center Johnson, Vermont, USA 2006 - Kuona Trust, 10th International Artists Residency Awards2013 - The Lava Thomas and Peter Danzig Fellowship
2013 - Unesco Aschberg Bursary for the Djerassi Residents Artists Program, USA 2012 - Dak’Art Biennale Moving Art Africa, Goethe Institut, Senegal 2011 - Robert Sterling Clark Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, USA 2006 - Most Promising Female Artist Award, Alliance Francaise French Cultural Centre PressBusiness Daily - 26-05-2016 - Artist’s works explore the dark recesses of human consciousness
EastAfrican - 7-05-2016 - Wanjiku featured No 1 in New York’s African art fair EastAfrican - 7-05-2016 - Conflicting values? you can bank on it... Jua Kali Diary, Margaretta Wa Gachuru - 7-04-2014 - Beatrice Wanjiku at One Off EastAfrican - 4-03-14 - The Circle that keeps on turning EastAfrican - 10-01-2014 - Dark thoughts in the dead of the night EastAfrican - 29-01-2012 - Drawing a veil over meaning |
Beatrice Wanjiku is exclusively represented in East Africa by One Off