Tabitha Wa Thuku (Kenyan, born 1963)
The Beautiful Host, 2006
Signed ‘tabitha wa THUKU’ (lower right)
Mixed media on paper
58 x 42.5 cm
Ksh 120,000–190,000
(US$ 1,100–1,725)
Sold Ksh 223,060
Provenance: direct from the artist
Born in the year of independence, Tabitha Wa Thuku began her creative practice as a young self-taught artist and one of the only female artists of her generation. With a career approaching three decades, Wa Thuku has made a name for herself as a painter unencumbered by convention, distinguished by a bold, varied palette and exuberant forms.
From 1996–99 she attended the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts and has undertaken various workshops to develop a wide range of techniques, demonstrated in her extensive body of work. Wa Thuku has exhibited regularly throughout her career in Kenya and abroad, including in The Netherlands, Italy, Hong Kong and Denmark, and her work is included in private and public collections in Kenya, including those of the National Museum of Kenya and in the Safaricom collection, PricewaterhouseCoopers and MMC Africa Law.