Artist Database

Peterson Kamwathi (Kenyan, 1980)

Peterson Kamwathi is considered one East Africa’s most inventive artists, incisively responding to the political and social issues around him. Working predominantly in printmaking, drawing and sculpture, Kamwathi combines conceptual elements and rich content with technical mastery.

Kamwathi has exhibited widely both locally and internationally. Recent highlights include his participation in Borderlines – Thirty Contemporary Artists from the Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius; the Young Congo Bienniale, Kinshasa, DRC, both in 2019; and Selections from the Private Collection of Ernst Hilger, Museum Angerlehner, Austria, 2018.

Other significant exhibitions include When the Heavens Meet the Earth, Heong Gallery, Cambridge, 2017; and La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017, where he represented Kenya. Kamwathi has participated in many international workshops and residencies, including the Fountainhead Residency in Miami, 2016; the Civitella Ranieri fellowship, 2012; the Art Omi international artist residency, 2009 and a printmaking residency at the London Print Studio, 2006. In 2013 he exhibited in the joint exhibition Six Degrees of Separate Nations, Frost Art Museum, Miami. Kamwathi is collected widely both locally and internationally, including by the British Museum.

Biography courtesy of Circle Art Gallery.