Agnes Waruguru, Water memories and blooms, 2022, Acrylic paint, ink, salt, and natural pigment on cotton, 400 x 400 cm / 157 1/2 x 157 1/2 in
Agnes Waruguru is a Kenyan contemporary artist whose work ranges from painting, drawing, printmaking, needlework, and installation. The materiality of objects in space is at the center of her practice which is intimately rooted in personal identity politics. Her work often references traditional women’s practices and cultural identifiers, exploring nature as well as familiar spaces, Waruguru uses traditional and non-traditional materials within her work to represent nature and the domestic.
Waruguru is interested in everyday materials, especially those associated with the home and everyday life. Her cultural identity combines strong attachments to the country of her birth and her adopted homes, a hybrid identity. She layers found materials and images with objects she’s had around her home to make wall hangings.
Her practice is a weaving of slow meditative processes and quick reactive moments, it is at once formal and abstract yet draws on everyday processes and crafts.
Agnes Wauruguru (b. 1994 in Kenya) has been exhibited in solo shows at La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT (2024); the 22nd VideoBrasil, São Paolo, BR (2023); ROOF-A Gallery in Rotterdam, NL (2022), at the Stellenbosch Triennale, Stellenbosch, SA (2020) and the Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi, Kenya (2020). Amongst others, she has been part of international group shows at Bode in Berlin, GER and Havana, CU; La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT; Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NL; No. 9 Cork Street, London, UK; Strouk Gallery, Paris, FR; Rele Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, and Welmont Gallery, Savannah, USA. Waruguru received a B.F.A. in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA, 2017.