While on the studio visit to Kenyan Painter Beatrice Wanjiku (as part of Njabala research and networking trip in Kenya), Martha Kazungu spent hours speaking with Beatrice Wanjiku about her paintings and what informs them. Wanjiku showed her personal books on anatomy and narrated her story - how she started her practice.

When asked to speak about her paintings and practice, Wanjiku asserted that her paintings are usually informed by so many things which she narrows down into a comprehensive topic. For instance, her most recent body of work which was born out of the quietness of reflection is inspired by the idea of the womb. However, it embodies several leaflets of thoughts regarding the agency of the female bodies, femicides, gender-based violence and the broken system we inhabit today.

Although Wanjiku’s figures appear tripped of skin, she starts of her painting process with definitive figures, whose borders become blurry after several layers of painting. To her, Painting the full figure feels like trapping the person in the canvas, therefore in her paintings, the canvas becomes the plane through which forms can transcend.

“My work is always about hope. I am looking for the ideal person that we are going to evolve to be. We as human beings are always in the moment of becoming” Beatrice Wanjiku.