Ehoodi Kichapi (Kenyan, born 1982)
Benor or Beast of Burden, circa. 2009
signed ‘Ehoodi Kichapi’ (lower right)
acrylic on canvas
110 x 80cm
Ksh 200,000–220,000
US$ 2,275–2,500
Sold Ksh 328,720
Provenance: Private Collection
Kichapi starting practicing as a cartoonist and over time in the process of teaching art to street children, taught himself to paint through vociferous reading, hard work and application. Ehoodi’s work is frequently focused on depicting the human psyche. Alongside the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, he cites West African music, his own culture and everyday life in Kenya as his principal influences and themes.
Kichapi’s work is in a number of private collections in Kenya and he frequently features in solo and group exhibitions. He was one of seven African artists who featured in an exhibition entitled ‘Power and Rights’, Contemporary Art from East and West Africa that toured Denmark in 2011/12.
This painting was reproduced in an article in January 2009 in ‘The EastAfrican’ and shown at the exhibition ‘Elaborations’ at RaMoMA, Nairobi in 2009.