Joseph Mbatia aka ‘Bertiers’ has got to be one of Kenya’s most important artists. More than a painter which he was trained for at the YMCA Craft Training Centre back in the 1970s, Bertiers is also a sculptor whose larger-than-life sculptures currently loom large at Alliance Française.
Nonetheless, it’s definitely his paintings that arrest art lovers in their tracks when they see the walls at the formerly named French Cultural Centre where Bertiers’ second solo exhibition, Sarakasi ya Siasa, opened last Wednesday night, July 13.
