Lot 16 Kota Otieno
Kota Otieno (Kenyan, born 1980)
Untitled, undated Signed ‘OTIENO KOTA’ (lower right)
Mixed media on canvas
64.7 x 55.6 cm
Ksh 100,000 – 200,000 ARR
(US$) 1,000 – 2,100
Provenance: Private collection
Otieno is a Nairobi based conceptual artist whose work includes mixed-media paintings, sculptures and installations. Kota studied art and design at school in Homa Bay until it was removed from the curriculum. After school he moved to Nairobi to pursue his passion for art and meeting artist Otieno Gomba they co-founded Maasai Mbili Art Studio, an artistic collective and community arts group in Kibera in 2001 that is still going strong.
In 2006, he won second prize at the Goethe Institut/Alliance Française art Competition and in 2007 he joined Kuona Trust Centre for Visual Arts to develop his practice further. Otieno explores the potential of discarded materials that when woven, stitched, hammered, painted or otherwise deconstructed and re-worked, create synthesized narratives. In his work, beauty and poetry emerge from unexpected places where the multitudes of lived moments have accumulated.
He has participated in many exhibitions in Kenya.