Shabu Mwangi Kenyan, b. 1985
Shabu Mwangi Kenyan, b. 1985
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Live and works in Nairobi
Shabu Mwangi‘s practice focuses on the effects of structural and historical violence and forms of marginalization on individual and collective psyches. Living and working in Mukuru, an informal settlement in Nairobi where he established the Wajukuu Art Project in 2013, Mwangi’s mixed media compositions are powerful expressions of societal and cultural fissures. His most recent work traces an ongoing personal journey of striving to understand the everchanging balance between the driving forces of love and pain. Here, Mwangi has turned his gaze inwards, asking himself questions about how he sees the people around him and reflecting on his interactions with them.
In 2022 Mwangi and fellow members of the Wajukuu Art Project participated in Documenta 15 in Kassel, where they went on to win the Arnold Bode prize. Mwangi participated in the 13a Biennial do Mercosul in Brazil, 2022. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Self Addressed, curated by Kehinde Wiley for Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023; Systems to Emptiness, a prelude to Documenta 15, 2022; A Never Ending Longing, Circle Art Gallery, Cromwell Place, London, 2022; The Sources of Our Seas, Circle Art Gallery, 2021; East African Encounters, Cromwell Place, London, 2021. Other shows include: The Man with Two Shadows, Circle Art Gallery online, 2020; Yawning for Power, Tilleard Projects, 2019; The Stateless, Circle Art Gallery, 2018; Freedom, Flight, Refuge, Circle Art Gallery, 2017; Art Transposition Nairobi-Kampala-Hamburg, LKB Gallery, Hamburg; Pop-Up Africa, GAFRA, London, 2017; Out of the Slum, Essen, 2012. Mwangi has participated in residency programs in Kenya, Germany and Italy.
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Works
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Exhibitions
March 2025 Group Show
Circle Art Gallery3 March - 17 April 2025We don’t always have the opportunity to exhibit new works from the artists we regularly collaborate with, especially in between their solo exhibitions or curated shows. However, we have recently...Read moreShabu Mwangi: (UN)CONTAINED TURBULENCE
Circle Art Gallery24 April - 25 May 2024Read moreInvocations: A Group Exhibition
Circle Art Gallery24 January - 24 February 2024Read moreEastern Voices: Contemporary Artists from East Africa
Addis Fine Art, London1 June - 22 July 2023We are delighted to be part of this survey exhibition which seeks to foster dialogue and highlight synergies between artists and contemporary East African galleries. In collaboration with Afriart Gallery...Read moreSouad Abdelrassoul & Shabu Mwangi: A Never Ending Longing
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, London9 - 15 May 2022Read moreShabu Mwangi & Ngugi Waweru: Systems to Emptiness
Circle Art Gallery16 March - 14 April 2022As a prelude to Wajukuu's participation in Documenta 15, June - Sept 2022 in Germany, Shabu Mwangi (Kenyan, born 1985) and Ngugi Waweru (Kenyan, born 1987) will be creating an...Read moreEast African Encounters
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, London5 - 17 October 2021Read moreShabu Mwangi: The Source of our Seas
Circle Art Gallery27 January - 17 February 2021Read moreShabu Mwangi: The Man with Two Shadows
Online27 August 2020Read moreShabu Mwangi: The Stateless
Circle Art Gallery26 September - 20 October 2017Lawrence 'Shabu' Mwangi is an artist in search of individual and collective healing. In The Stateless, his first solo exhibition since 2015, Shabu recalls his interactions with asylum seekers whilst...Read moreFreedom | Flight | Refuge
Circle Art Gallery11 February - 31 March 2016Circle Art Gallery's first exhibition of 2016 entitled 'Freedom | Flight | Refuge' explores personal and public issues of freedom, movement and home. Six contemporary Kenyan artists have made work...Read more
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Video
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Art fairs
Cape Town Art Fair
Souad Abdelrassoul, Boniface Maina, Lawrence ‘Shabu’ Mwangi, Donald Wasswa17 - 20 February 2022Group Presentation - Souad Abdlrassoul (Egyptian b. 1974), Boniface Maina (Kenyan b. 1987), Lawrence 'Shabu' Mwangi (Kenyan b. 1985), Donald Wasswa (Ugandan, b. 1984)Read more1-54 London
Tahir Karmali, Shabu Mwangi and Paul Ndema3 - 6 October 2019Read moreCape Town Art Fair
Jackie Karuti, Shabu Mwangi, Ephrem Solomon, Gor Soudan16 - 18 February 2018Read more
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