Joseph Bertiers

Bertiers’ detailed paintings and life sized sculptures of celebrities, and national and global events are characterised by his sharp wit and humour. Following two years of commercial sign-writing, Bertiers began to make his own artworks, selecting the pseudonym ‘Bertiers’, his real name is Joseph Mbatia, in an attempt to gain more serious attention from foreign collectors. In 2006, he was selected to participate in Dak’Art and won first prize at a national competition for contemporary art organised by Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institut in Nairobi and travelled to Germany for an exhibition in Hiedelberg. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Fred’s Gallery, London in 2011, who also took his work to the Basel Art Fair in 2011 and the Johannesburg Art Fair in 2012. Group exhibitions include, ‘ARS, Africa in Kuovola’, Kuovola Museum, Finland, 2012; ‘Africa Now’ organised by Thorup Art at the Round Tower, Denmark, 2008–9.