Agnes Waruguru is Kenyan artist exploring ideas of everyday life, home, personal histories, identity and the potential for creating new worlds through active material experimentation, practice and repetitions. Her works range from painting, drawing, printmaking, needlework and installation, with a wide-ranging underlying frame of reference. Waruguru’s artwork is directly related to her surroundings while drawing connections to multiple histories. Their work can be viewed as extended paintings, playing with all the senses, making the viewer aware of their body; where one is within the artworks 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.

Waruguru received a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, USA. Her work has been exhibited in America, France, South Africa and Kenya. She has participated in 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, in 2020. She had her first solo show ‘Small things to Consider’ at Circle art gallery in September 2020. Waruguru has been nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs 2022 at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. She is currently competing her residency at the Rijksakademie (2021-2023), whilst living and working in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
‘Open Studio’, Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2022
‘Open Studio’, Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
‘I Dreamed a place for you will you visit?’, Roof-A, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2020
‘Small Things to Consider’, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya


GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
‘Hiatus’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Echoes of Our Stories’, Quinta do Quetzal, Faro, Portugal
‘Awakening’, Strouk Gallery, Paris, France
‘Unfathomable’, Althius Hofland, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2022
‘Chapter 5IVE’, Het Hem, Zaandam, Netherlands
‘Open Studio’, Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
‘A Bit of Unruly Complexity’, SANATORIUM, Istanbul, Turkey
‘Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs’, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, Netherlands
‘Nice time to Start Painting’, Bode Projects, Havana, Cuba

2021
‘ABOUT NOW’, Gallery Cecile Fakhoury, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
‘Reading Abstraction’, Rele Gallery, Los Angeles, United States of America

2019
‘Open Studio’, 1.3 Kitisuru Rd, Nairobi, Kenya
‘Montage’ Saba Studios, Lamu, Kenya
‘Lucid Dreams’, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
‘I Will See What I Want To See’, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya

2018
‘New Threads’, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
‘Manjano’, Village Market with GoDown Art center, Nairobi, Kenya
‘Line’, One Off Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
‘If Not Now’, Cave Bureau, Nairobi, Kenya

2017
'A Place That is Not Yours’, Welmont Gallery, Savannah, United States of America
‘Alexander Collective Salon’, Non- Fiction Gallery, Savannah, United States of America
‘SCAD DeFine Art Student Showcase’, Alexander Hall Gallery, Savannah, United States of America

2016
‘Open Studio’, Lacoste, Lacoste, France

BIENNALE

2023
22nd VideoBrasil, São Paulo, Brasil Memory is an editing station

2020
‘On The Cusp Upcoming’, Stellenbosch Triennale, Stellenbosch, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2021-2023
Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten , Amsterdam, Netherlands

2019
Saba Artists Residency, Lamu, Kenya

2018
Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Anidan, Lamu, Kenya

PUBLICATIONS

2018
Hope, Energy, and Ingenuity, Published by Mastercard Foundation

COLLECTIONS

Arak Collection, Qatar