Nairobi-born, Chicago-based artist Wangari Mathenge paints “people at home, with all the complexities and comforts that home entails”, writes Alejandra Oliva in Elephant 47. “For Mathenge, the authenticity of her subjects, the interiors they populate … is more about making a mark in the historical record: this is what it looks like to be a Black Kenyan woman, or a Black Kenyan family, living in a home in Chicago or London or Kenya,” Oliva continues. And the resulting paintings—like this intimate dressing table set-up from Mathenge’s Ascendants series—are vibrantly alive, and sublimely detailed. Find out more about Mathenge’s practice, and the ideas that drive it, in our new issue, available to pre-order now.
