Shabu Mwangi
Shabu Mwangi was born in 1985 and began practicing art in 2003. He lives and works in Mukuru slum where he established the Wajukuu Art Project in 2013 with a deep conviction that his work could highlight the lives of the disadvantaged minorities in his community. Deeply concerned by society’s inequality and our lack of empathy for people with different social, political, ethnic and religious beliefs, his work seeks to examine human behaviour and our collective amnesia. His inspiration comes from the view that a lot of inequities and frustration deeply affects his society and the actions that is taken especially during highly sensitive political time can give insight to who they are and how they are influenced politically and how they are divided culturally and socially.
In his work, Shabu strives to examine the human behavior and interaction with each-other and what really drives us to a point of losing the sense of oneness and reaching a point where more focus is always on our ego. He constantly reflects on the quest as human being: the acceptance of our condition and at the same time the view that we are forgetful, a kind of collective amnesia, that why I …
Shabu Mwangi was born in 1985 and began practicing art in 2003. He lives and works in Mukuru slum where he established the Wajukuu Art Project in 2013 with a deep conviction that his work could highlight the lives of the disadvantaged minorities in his community. Deeply concerned by society’s inequality and our lack of empathy for people with different social, political, ethnic and religious beliefs, his work seeks to examine human behaviour and our collective amnesia. His inspiration comes from the view that a lot of inequities and frustration deeply affects his society and the actions that is taken especially during highly sensitive political time can give insight to who they are and how they are influenced politically and how they are divided culturally and socially.
In his work, Shabu strives to examine the human behavior and interaction with each-other and what really drives us to a point of losing the sense of oneness and reaching a point where more focus is always on our ego. He constantly reflects on the quest as human being: the acceptance of our condition and at the same time the view that we are forgetful, a kind of collective amnesia, that why I say wealth will never describe a rich man or poverty a poor man in the eyes of a deeper observer.
He has worked with art2be and Hope Worldwide and exhibitions include Pop-Up Africa, 2014, GAFRA, London; Out of the Slum, 2012 Essen, Germany and various group and solo exhibitions in Nairobi, Kenya.
Courtesy of Circle Art Gallery
