Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga (Kenyan, born 1960)
Kiambiriria-Genesis, 2009
Signed on washer on bottom of work
Stainless steel wire and washers
204 x 102cm
Ksh 1,030,000-1,470,000
US$ 11,700-16,700
Bought in
Provenance: direct from the artist
Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga studied art at the University of Nairobi and continued her studies at the University of California Los Angeles. She spent her early childhood in Kenya but now lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
Gakunga is known for her contemporary wall-hanging sculptures made of steel wire, tin cans and oxidised sheet metal. She oxidises her materials by saturating rolls of sheet metal in water, sometimes adding dye for colour. Fibre, string, ribbons and fine grade metal are the primary materials in her work. She has exhibited in the USA, UK, France, Brazil and Poland. Her UK debut solo exhibition ‘Ituῖka – Transformation’ was presented at October Gallery, London in 2013 and she will be showing at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, October 2014.
Here, Gakunga explores the aesthetic dimension of strings from a traditional African context. Genesis-Kĩambĩrĩria explores the connection between past and present, between tradition and modernity, and between older generations and the contemporary.