Lot 5

Peterson Kamwathi (Kenyan, born 1980)
Untitled (Standing Form), 2016
Unsigned
Mild steel
44.3 x 11.5 x 2 cm (excluding base)
Base: 3.2 x 11.5 x 10 cm
Ksh 120,000 – 150,000 ARR
(US$) 1,200 – 1,500
Provenance: private collection

Sold Ksh 199,580

Peterson Kamwathi is considered one of the region’s most inventive artists, incisively responding to the political and social issues around him. Working predominantly in printmaking, drawing and sculpture, Kamwathi combines conceptual elements and rich content with technical mastery.

Drawn onto soft steel then cut out, this sculpture is a study of an individual figure – solitary, but who may ultimately be part of a group. It is an early piece from a multiple-series body of work in which Kamwathi explored how structures of humans congregating can be viewed as metaphors for our collective interests and concerns.

Kamwathi has exhibited widely both locally and internationally. Recent highlights include his participation in Borderlines – Thirty Contemporary Artists from the Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius; the Young Congo Biennial, Kinshasa, DRC, both in 2019; and Selections from the Private Collection of Ernst Hilger, Museum Angerlehner, Austria, 2018. Other significant exhibitions include When the Heavens Meet the Earth, Heong Gallery, Cambridge, 2017; and La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017 where he represented Kenya. He has participated in many international workshops and residencies including the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, 2016; the Civitella Ranieri fellowship, 2012; the Art Omi international artist residency, 2009 and a printmaking residency at the London Print Studio, 2006. In 2013 he exhibited in the joint exhibition Six Degrees of Separate Nations, Frost Art Museum, Miami. Kamwathi’s work is collected widely both locally and internationally, including by the British Museum.