2022

2022 | Writers & Artist Fund for Travel

Travel is empowering, uplifting, enjoyable, and educational. When we travel, we add to our experiences and memories, reinforcing our understanding of ourselves and those encountered along the journey. Upon our return we are freed, we are stretched, we are lifted and we reimagine ourselves.

WAFT was imagined as a vehicle to allow selected Kenyan Writers and Artists and the time and the funds to travel to the world’s oldest and most prestigious art exhibition; The Venice Biennale, with its many international pavilions and adjacent art exhibits. The hope is WAFT will annually nominate different groups of dedicated writers and artists, who would travel to contemporary and ancient Art sites and events in Africa, where Art was - and is - created and where it still exists. By visiting these sites that we have historically traveled through, built on and marked, WAFT will create opportunities to learn and expand our understanding of Art. This will imprint powerfully in the memories of the travelers, allowing a deeper understanding of what we've encountered and creating a conversation with these places and each others' experiences.

For Africans to rebuild broken histories, we must intentionally and actively share what we have witnessed, experienced and understood about ourselves. WAFT will work to create memories that are sacred, specific and special, that we can utilize to reinforce our bonds; Building deeper, more integrated, and more self-determined Art practices. Making Art stronger and richer, through movement and travel, will allow us to grow our sense of shared cultural space and strengthen our common histories.

Jonathan Fraser,
Fellow, 2022

Jonathan Fraser is a multidisciplinary artist primarily using drawing as a means for paying careful (and caring) attention to his environment. He works to generate novel relationships and interesting interactions so that drawing may expand and possibly envelope amateur science, play, poetry, and outdoor exploration into an embodied artistic praxis.

In late 2023, Fraser was an artist in residence at 32º East, Kampala. He studied Fine Art at Kenyatta University. In 2022, he was a recipient of the Venice Biennale travel grant, WAFT, facilitated by Wangechi Mutu Studio. In 2021, his solo exhibition “There Is A Time and A Place” was held at Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi. Group exhibitions he’s participated in include: “Fictions”, Circle Art Gallery, 2022; “I Will See What I Want to See”, Circle Art Gallery, 2019; “If Not Now”, Cave Bureau, 2018; “Line: The Basic Element”, One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, 2018; “Anatomy of Me”, The Art Space, 2017.

“Travelling to Europe for the Venice Biennial and the parallel exhibitions taking place in the city was a revelatory experience. I was able to engage with artwork from many artists I've only ever seen online or discovered there and gleaned a great amount from the material qualities of the artwork and installation choices employed. Several months later and I am still actively thinking about how to integrate these observations into my own artistic practice.”

Taabu E Munyoki,
Fellow, 2022

Taabu E Munyoki is a contemporary artist who uses a diverse range of media including paint, sculptural forms, ink, pastels and digital art to explore social issues, as well as the dynamics of human relationships, of self and of the environment. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, she received her formal education at Kenyatta University where she got her bachelor’s degree in fine art. Her work is characterized by its bold use of color and form, as well as its engagement with social and political issues. She is particularly interested in exploring themes of identity, race, gender, and sexuality, and often draws on her personal experiences to inform her art. Through her work, Taabu seeks to challenge conventional notions of beauty and form, and provoke thought and discussion about the complex social and political issues that shape our world.

Select exhibition include Various Small Fires, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (2021), Concordant Conveyances, Mitochondria Gallery, Houston (2021), Form Exhibition, One off Gallery, Nairobi (2019)

“There’s a freedom to how I am making the work since coming from Venice. I am also thinking wholly about the work and the overall presentation which is exciting.”

Neo Musangi,
Fellow, 2022

Neo Sinoxolo Musangi is a queer feminist living in Olkejuado, Kenya. They work in art and academia; is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Art, Design and Social Research (CAD+SR); is a founding member of the Black Planetary Futures Collective, and teaches Gender and Sexuality Studies at St. Lawrence and American University.

“In 2022, I had the incredible opportunity to travel from Kenya to the Venice Biennale as a writer and artist, thanks to the generous support of the Writers and Artists Fellowship for Travel (WAFT). The journey—for the second time in the same year— from the vibrant streets of Nairobi to the enchanting canals of Venice was a truly appreciated chance to return, to re-see, and re-live the Biennale. As I wandered through the labyrinthine streets of this historic city, I was not only immersed in a world of artistic wonder and cultural richness, but also found myself engulfed in a deep sense of longing for something similar for other writers and artists from my part of the world. The Venice Biennale, with its diverse array of exhibitions and installations, was a reminder of why art’s ability to transcend continues to give us a language for our freedom dreams. This journey, not only broadened my artistic horizons but also deepened my appreciation for artists and the worlds they have made, and make, possible.”

Peter Ngugi,
Fellow, 2022

Peter Ngugi is a Kenyan contemporary visual artist. His best-known works are the large-scale oil on canvas portraits. The works feature full size figures dressed in African contemporary fashion. They are portraits of real everyday people. The portraits lack facial features and are rendered as silhouettes. These real characters appear in fictitious compositions and imagined utopias. Contemporary African fabric is a common feature in peter's compositions. This is deliberately employed in the narration of an African story. The work interrogates the relevance of telling these stories to the world.

Peter Ngugi is a self-taught artist. He has actively practiced since 1998 and has taken part in many solo and group exhibitions. His work is featured in both private and public collections. Peter has also taken part in many residency programs and workshops. His work has also been featured in books and art journals

“Over the years that I've been practicing, I've always wanted to visit Europe. I wanted to see work by the old masters, the architecture and contemporary art. when the opportunity came through WAFT, It was super exciting for me because it covered this three areas. I stayed in Venice for one week and I had the opportunity to experience the beauty and charm that had inspired writers and artist for many generations. I saw a wide range of contemporary art from all over the world and it's presentation in the international arena. I was fascinated by the breathtaking architecture of Venice, the old church buildings the bridges and canals. This experience has taught me freedom in my approach to different subjects in my practice. It's my view that through this freedoms, new and exiting ideas are formed. There is art all around, you just need to look!”

Churchill Ongere,
Fellow, 2022

Churchill Ongere’s work explores the politics of human relations through conspicuous and indistinct topics in the contemporary space like history, decolonization, conflict, and reconciliation. In his presentations, Ongere eschews explicitly political or anecdotal imagery. To communicate he relies instead on innocuous objects and their movements and interactions within undefined bound and open areas. Everyday objects such as chairs, stools, boxes, sheep, and fruits – suspended, drifting, tumbling – function as ambiguous metaphors whose interpretations rely on the viewer and how/where they situate themselves within the work.

In 2022, he was a grantee of the inaugural Writers and Artists Fellowship to Venice Biennale by Wangechi Mutu Studio and was a Speculative Fiction Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center’s Digital ID Research Sprint where his short story titled Mr.Kabul was published as part of an 8 story anthology on digital identity.

“WAFT is a great resource for artists looking to experience what major art events such as the Venice Biennale offer. The support provided makes it easy for the artist to exercise independence on how they plan and execute their trip, and how they learn from it. It's also a great place to meet other artists and further your professional networks. After my travel, I'm now practicing with new techniques in my practice (material and color) and will keep revisiting my reflections from the experience.”

Sujay Shah,
Fellow, 2022

Sujay Shah (b. Nairobi, Kenya) is an artist living and working in Kenya. He graduated with a B.F.A in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2013. After college, Sujay lived in New York, working as a studio assistant for the artist Paul Bloodgood. In 2022, he was awarded The WAFT (Writer’s and Artist Fellowship for Travel) facilitated by Wangechi Mutu Studio. He had his first solo in 2023 at the Circle Gallery in Nairobi and will be showing in 2024 at SCADMOA, Savannah, Georgia, USA.

Sujay’s expressionistic approach to painting and drawings, centered around the animal, incorporates myth, intermingled cultural ideologies and history, references early conservation practices, big game trophy hunting, safari and museum displays, which are intermixed with furniture, ornaments and luxury objects in order to upend and caricature colonial imaginaries and legacies that still persist around such themes, while alluding to larger notions of inheritance, value systems, coexistence and loss.

“Being exposed to such amazing art on display at both the Venice Biennale and Documenta, The WAFT enabled me to expand my visual, tactile, and conceptual lexicon, providing me with a reservoir of ideas and references that I can continually refer to, and incorporate within my own practice. It underscored the imperative of viewing art in its physical form, one that online viewing can never be a substitute for. Even now, I find myself continually digesting and pondering what I experienced during these travels.”

Kari Mutu,
Writer, 2022

Kari Mutu is a marketing professional and independent writing professional based in Nairobi, Kenya. She writes on various topics including arts, culture, book reviews, travel, natural history, sustainability and social impact issues. An engaging storyteller, Kari writes about contemporary art and artists in East Africa aiming to connect audiences with work produced locally and expose the creative energies of the region. She is a firm believer in the role of arts writing in articulating and highlighting the profession.Kari enjoys interviewing visual artists, particularly emerging creatives, to understand their techniques, practices, ideas and experiences in the arts journey. She profiles galleries, curators, exhibitions and supporters of the arts, as well as traditional culture and history, and explores the issues surrounding the art sector. Her writing is also a platform to discuss other art forms including photography, film and theatre.

Her published work has appeared in The East African, Business Daily, Contemporary&, and more. Kari is also the author of The Firemakers of Azali, an African fantasy novel for tweens.

“Venice Biennale 2022 was incredible, overwhelming, and extraordinary beyond words. To spend days on end looking at an astonishing array of art from around the world was a transformative and hugely eye-opening experience; eternally grateful for the opportunity.”