Florence Wangui
Where Do We Begin
Where Do We Begin
My art attempts to express the state I find myself in when revisiting an experience consciously and/or sub-consciously and how this impacts my thought and decision-making processes. When our minds fail to digest some experiences, there is a tendency to look behind, to go back and brood over and over the occurrence, perhaps in search of insight.
What we find or what finds us, perhaps triggers a release or is met with resistance. There is a desire to conjure up an escape door and abandon all, albeit with no resolution, or to enter into a turbid, stagnant phase that knows no time.
Yesterday knocked at the door. Today answered and asked; "why the sudden visit?". Yesterday responded; "Let me in, I've travelled far enough, I shall let you know tomorrow".
Something's got to give, perhaps the release is near, perhaps a saving grace awaits.
Florence Wangui - Nairobi - 2024
What we find or what finds us, perhaps triggers a release or is met with resistance. There is a desire to conjure up an escape door and abandon all, albeit with no resolution, or to enter into a turbid, stagnant phase that knows no time.
Yesterday knocked at the door. Today answered and asked; "why the sudden visit?". Yesterday responded; "Let me in, I've travelled far enough, I shall let you know tomorrow".
Something's got to give, perhaps the release is near, perhaps a saving grace awaits.
Florence Wangui - Nairobi - 2024
Florence Wangui - Biography
Florence Wangui is at the forefront of the new generation of Kenyan artists making a big impact both locally and internationally.
Born and raised in Nairobi; her interest in art began in her early childhood years and was a hobby she thoroughly enjoyed.
Wangui shot to prominence with a series of charcoal drawings of chickens from her mother’s coop. She captured their varying moods and peculiar personalities with dazzling formal skills.
A natural talent, her childhood drawings were seized upon by her teachers as classroom aids and she went on to complete a degree in Zoology and Biochemistry at Kenyatta University before choosing art as a career.
In this Wangui was mentored by a fellow artist, Patrick Mukabi at the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi. He helped her to develop her formal abilities even further before she refined her oil painting technique with the practicing artist Dolores Gomez.
Always adventurous in her choice of media, in 2016 Wangui completed a series of glass panels of the Stations of the Cross for the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kericho. She also completed a group of sculptures in bronze for the cathedral doors.
Wangui continues to produce dynamic and exciting work, primarily in charcoals and oils and often with a Surreal yet accessible slant that interrogates her own experiences within a world that shapes and defines us all.
Now recognized as an important young talent, she is collected widely at home and abroad and has been included in many important public and private collections.
Wangui is represented by the One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi.