Lot 43

Yony Waite (Kenyan, 1935 – 2024)
Lamu Conversations, early 2000s
Signed ‘Yony Waite’ (lower right)
Ink and pen on paper
21 x 30 cm
KES 60,000 – 100,000
(US$) 470 – 800
Provenance: From the artist’s estate

Yony Waite grew up on the Pacific Island of Guam but eventually became a Kenyan citizen. She studied Fine Art at the University of California where her mentor Richard Diebenkorn instilled in her a keen appreciation of the essential value of light. Waite then went to Japan to study the art of sumi-e brush painting where she developed a great love of ink as a medium. Waite kept the Kenyan wilderness at the heart of her practice.

Alongside her work as an artist, Waite was instrumental in establishing various art institutions in Kenya, most notably as co-founder of Gallery Watatu in 1968, which was later sold to Ruth Schaffner in 1984. She went on to establish Wildebeest Workshops and Mkonokono women’s group in Lamu where she lived until her death. Waite received a Rockefeller Grant to create a large-scale work to be exhibited at the Rio Biodiversity Summit of 1992.

Waite has a strong international following and has exhibited extensively in Japan, USA and Kenya.