Gifted sculptor lands junk metal space at the Circle Art Gallery

Dennis Muraguri has been fascinated with matatus from an early age, ever since an uncle drew one for him, inspiring the little boy to start drawing ones of his own.

His family home in Naivasha was right near a bus stage so he grew up watching the playful performances of mini-bus conductors and admiring their daring style and the delight with which they played their part in matatus’ ‘performance’ culture.

It’s no surprise then that this Kuona Trust-based artist would eventually transform his affection for matatus into a fine art.

For the past month, Mr Muraguri’s marvelous mix of multi-coloured matatu woodcut prints as well as his matatu video have been on display at Circle Art Gallery in Lavington. 

Calling the matatu ‘iconic’ in his video, Mr Muraguri understands that some people don’t like the lawlessness of matatu drivers.

But he appreciates the wider matatu culture for the role it plays, not just in providing essential transport to the majority of Kenyans, but also for the improvisational energy, free-wheeling spirit and even the entrepreneurial edge. 

At BIFA, he actually majored in painting and art history. He only began doing print-making after taking part in a workshop on the subject run by the multi-talented print-maker, painter and sculptor Peterson Kamwathi.

That was in 2013 and he has been creating matatu prints on a variety of media – from paper and canvas to cotton t-shirts -- ever since.

In this his first solo exhibition, which runs through this week and then becomes part of an August Circle Art “Pop-Up Exhibition” in Lamu at Shela’s Peponi Hotel, Mr Muraguri exposes another dimension of his artistry, one that many people don’t know about.

It’s the man who shapes scrap metal, spare parts and polished wood into striking semi-abstract sculptures.

They have a surreal resemblance to African masks, but he more appropriately titles them “aliens”.

His original scrap metal art can be found all over Nairobi in corporate offices and public spaces. He began back in 2008 to create his ‘mask-like’ sculptures, showing them in group exhibitions either at Kuona Trust or the now-defunct Rahimtullah Museum of Modern Art. (RaMoMA).

Asked by his fellow Kuona artist Jackie Karuti what inspired him to sculpt, he didn’t mention Western masters like Michelangelo or Henry Moore. Instead, he said it was a neighbourhood cobbler and a tailor who initially inspired him to shift from two-dimensional painting to three-dimensional art.

They were technically artisans, not artists; but it was the intense concentration with which they worked that fascinated him.

There was also another man that repaired clocks and watches who intrigued Mr Muraguri, so much so that he’d collect broken parts that the watchmaker tossed and use them in creating his sculptures.

“That’s why the first sculpture I ever did was a clock,” says the artist who also picked up broken zippers from the tailor to use in his ingenious scrap metal art.

Thanks to Circle Art co-founder Danda Jaroljmek, Mr Muraguri’s first one-man show includes more than a half-dozen scrap-metal sculptures, mixed in with his matatu prints on canvas. It was she who made his exhibition conditional upon his including sculptures in his exhibition.

“There’s frankly been greater interest in his sculptures than his prints,” says Ms Jaroljmek who appreciates Mr Muraguri’s scrap metal works as much if not more than his matatu art.

Pricing

Fortunately, Mr Muraguri’s first solo show provides a balance between his love of matatus and his imaginative approach to his scrap metal sculpture.

The one anomaly in the show is his ‘map’ of Kenya which is shaped out of colourful second-hand miniature baby toys.
The map is just one more illustration of how ingenious is the artist. Pricing on the sculptures runs around Sh200,000, and his matatu print ‘paintings’ are substantially more.