Harrison Mburu

Born in 1974, Mburu was forced to leave school in 1989 due to an inability to pay his school fees. He immediately found work as a manual labourer and was able to support his mother and siblings. In 1992, a relative helped him to finance a two year course doing mechanics after which he joined the informal sector and started to collect metal which he bent into interesting shapes.

Mburu has gone from strength to strength and has been awarded residencies in both the Netherlands and Vermont at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Centre (2006).

His first piece of fine art, ‘Crocodile’, was accepted for exhibition by Gallery Watatu in 1994. Subsequently he became RaMoMA's (Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art) highest selling metal artist. As a consequence he won the commission to create the balustrade to the main stairwell at RaMoMA's premises at 2nd Parklands Avenue, Nairobi.

Mburu is married and lives on the outskirts of Nairobi with his wife and three children.