Agnes Waruguru (Kenyan, b. 1994), Lives and works in Nairobi
Agnes Waruguru is interested in everyday materials, especially those associated with the home and daily routines. Her practice is a weaving of slow meditative processes and quick reactive moments, at once formal and abstract, drawing together process and craft. Many of her works reference women’s practices, traditional cultural identifiers and personal identity politics as modes to engage with memory, place and expanding notions of home moving between Kenya the country of her birth and her adopted homes. She draws from personal experience to create new landscapes which can often be memory or emotionscapes that invite the viewer to look slowly, imagine and speculate. Two of the three artworks presented at this year’s fair, Searching (Passageways) and Time is Passing, are part of an ongoing body of work titled Water Memories, a return to the idea that water never forgets, and always remembers.
Waruguru received a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, USA. Her work has been exhibited in America, the Ivory Coast, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and Kenya. She has participated in residencies in Kenya, at the Saba Artists Residency in Lamu and in Sydney, Australia. Waruguru participated in the inaugural edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa in 2020 and had her first solo show Small Things to Consider at Circle Art Gallery later that same year. In 2022 she was nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prize and will be showing at the 22nd Biennial Sesc–Videobrasil in Sao Paulo from 25th October 2023. She recently completed a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She participated in the 69th Biennale di Venezia entitled 'Foreigners Everywhere' curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Waruguru had her second solo exhibition at Circle, What the Water left Behind December 2024 and was featured in The Artsy Vanguard. Young Artists to Watch list; an annual feature highlighting the most promising artists working today.