Lot 33

Beatrice Wanjiku (Kenyan, born 1978)
Red Nude, 2005
Signed ‘Beatrice 05’ (lower left)
Acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas
88 x 114.3 cm
Ksh 450,000 – 680,000 ARR
(US$) 4,000 – 6,000
Provenance: Private collection

Sold Ksh 421,560

Beatrice Wanjiku’s paintings explore the tension between external pressures and our internal state of being. The human form takes primacy in Wanjiku’s work. This early work, created in 2005, is more overtly figurative, a precursor to the more gestural, haunting abstract figures for which she is known today.
In 2000, she received a diploma from the Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts in Nairobi and quickly became a distinguished artist on the Kenyan contemporary art scene. Wanjiku’s work has been shown and collected widely in Kenya. Major international exhibitions include Africa Now: Emerging artists from a continent on the move, Washington DC, 2008, Africa Within: Many eyes one soul, London, 2006 and Pop-Up Africa at GAFRA, London, 2014.

In 2015 she participated in the exhibition Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner at the Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York curated by Smooth Ugochukwu and The African Tree at Ostrale 2015 Dresden, Germany.