Artist Database

Agnes Waruguru is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, printmaking, needlework, and installation, with a wide-ranging underlying frame of reference. Waruguru’s work is directly related to her surroundings while drawing connections to multiple histories. Her works can be viewed as extended paintings, playing with all the senses, making the viewer aware of their body, where one is within the artwork’s space. Waruguru plays with scent, organic plant matter, light, water, and the expansion of colour to create environments that suspend time and evoke a sense of care, slowness and waiting. She explores ideas of everyday life, home, personal histories, identity, and the potential for creating new worlds through active material experimentation, practice, and repetitions.

Waruguru received a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, USA. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, France, South Africa, and Kenya. She has held residencies in Kenya and Sydney, Australia and took part in the Saba Artists Residency in Lamu. Waruguru participated in the inaugural edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa, 2020. She had her first solo show Small Things to Consider at Circle Art Gallery in September 2020. Waruguru was nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs 2022 at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, The Netherlands. She has just completed a residency at the Rijksakademie (2021-2023). She lives and works in between Amsterdam and Nairobi.