Lot 27

Yony Waite (Kenyan, born 1935)
Untitled, undated
Unsigned
Acrylic on canvas
91.5 x 122 cm
Ksh 380,000 – 500,000
(US$) 3,800 – 5,000
Provenance: Direct from the artist

Sold Ksh 351,300

Yony Waite, now a Kenyan citizen, grew up on the Pacific Island of Guam. She studied Fine Art at the University of California where her mentor Richard Diebenkorn instilled in her a keen appreciation of the essential value of light. Waite then went to Japan to study the art of sumi-e brush painting where she developed a great love of ink as a medium. Waite has kept her gaze of the Kenyan wilderness at the heart of her practice. The subject of this painting is a theme she returns to often, the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara – one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Alongside her work as an artist, Waite has been instrumental in establishing various art institutions in Kenya, most notably as co-founder of Gallery Watatu in 1968, which was, later, sold to Ruth Schaffner in 1984. She went on to establish Wildebeest Workshops and Mkonokono women’s group in Lamu were she still lives. Waite received a Rockefeller Grant to create a large-scale work to be exhibited at the Rio Biodiversity Summit of 1992.

Waite has a strong international following and has exhibited extensively in Japan, USA and Kenya.