Agnes Waruguru treats painting as a site and process for exploring the materiality of objects and their capacity to act as markers of identity and carriers of personal histories. She works predominantly on cotton, using dyeing, pouring and spraying alongside brushwork. These painterly processes are combined with acts of making learnt and inherited from the women in her life. Beadwork, sewing, needlework, embroidery and knitting are all incorporated in her work, intimately connecting aspects of personal identity with traditions of women’s work.
Waruguru received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2017. She is currently based in Amsterdam, in fellowship at the Rijksakademie (2021–2023). In 2020 Waruguru participated in the inaugural edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa, and held her first solo exhibition, Small Things to Consider, at Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi. Recent select group exhibitions include: The Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, 2022; A Bit of Unruly Complexity, SANATORIUM Gallery, Istanbul, 2022; I Dreamed A Place For You, Will You Visit?, ROOF-A, Rotterdam, 2022; Lucid Dreams, Circle Art Gallery, 2019; New Threads, Investigating Process and Material, Circle Art Gallery, 2018. Waruguru has completed artist residencies in Lamu and Sydney. She has been nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunsten Prijs for Artists under 35.
