Peterson Kamwathi Waweru

Name: Peterson Kamwathi Waweru
Place of Birth: Nairobi, Kenya
Year of Birth: 1980
Areas of Work: Drawing, Print-Making, Mixed Media
Website: www.kamwathi.com

My work strives to depict and symbolize the different issues that impact on me and my society and at times issues that affect the world as a whole. These issues are social, political or environmental depending on the specific concerns at the given time. Symbols are an important part of my work. I use symbols that have either local or universal meanings to illustrate the specific issues I am addressing e.g. the universal symbol for radio hazards in the conflict series. These symbols are meant to act as trigger mechanisms that grant access to the viewer into the subject on my work. Acting like a password, symbols on the other hand restrict an observer, who is not affected, concerned or conversant with these issues, the space to maneuver or bypass the issues.
In my current work I am creating a series of drawings depicting “queues”. These are derived from imagery and experiences relating to the voting process, the migration process and in services like banking. Queues are signs of events in time. I am trying to look at channeling, conditioning and manipulation as symbolized by people in a queue. This is in the areas of politics, migration and economics in both contemporary and historical contexts.
– Peterson Kamwathi Waweru


Selected Solo Exhibitions: 

2010 “…matter of record…” Ed Cross Fine Art, London.

2010 "ArtContemporain - Peterson Kamwathi Waweru", Gallery DuflonRacz , Berne.

2009  “Sitting Allowance” Goethe Institut Nairobi.

2007 The GoDown art center, Nairobi.

2005, Tuska center for contemporary art, University of Kentucky, Lexington Kentucky. 


Selected Group Exhibitions:

2010 “Coca-colonized” Brot Kuntshalle. Vienna, “Space: Currencies in contemporary African art” Museum Africa, Johannesburg.

2009 “Beyond the desert” Darb 1718 Contemporary art and culture center, Cairo. “Probe” The GoDown art centre, Nairobi.

2008 “Africa Now: Emerging talent from a continent on the move” World Bank headquarters, Washington DC.