Musyoka Martin - Here;Now

Detail : Round Two, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
100 x 90 cm
Kshs 80 000

Musyoka Martin
Here; Now

Artist's statement:
This series rejects the panoramic landscape in favor of the micro-landscape. By eliminating horizon and sky, this directs focus to the architecture of grass: blades, nodes, and seed heads rendered at intimate scale. The works function as portraits asserting that complexity and dignity exist within the overlooked.

Landscapes are often depicted through sweeping vistas of savannah and escarpment. Here; Now inverts that tradition, shifting attention from the iconic to the foundational. Soil health, water retention, and biodiversity begin at this scale. This is the level most frequently ignored.

By privileging the minute over the panoramic, the paintings question our hierarchies of attention and value. They extend my commitment to sustainability: recognize integrity in the smallest unit, waste nothing, and argue that conservation starts by seeing what we step on.

Martin Musyoka - Nairobi - 2026

Artist Bio
Artist, Woodworker, Art Tutor

Musyoka Martin's practice bridges fine art and sustainable craft. Working primarily in painting, he examines the micro-landscapes and close-up studies of grass that interrogate scale, attention, and ecological value. He holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Art from Kenyatta University that informs a material-driven approach, treating each canvas as a constructed object with attention to structure, texture, and integrity.

Rooted in Kenya’s traditions of both landscape and woodworking, his work inverts the panoramic view to focus on the foundational: soil, fiber, and the systems we often overlook. Themes of sustainability, resourcefulness, and reverence for local material run through both his paintings and artwork framing commissions.

He has exhibited locally in Que passa, Affordable Art Show at the National Museum and the International School of Kenya yearly exhibition. He maintains an art studio in Ngong town. This is his debut painting series for gallery submission.