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MA Fine Art students welcome Kenyan artists Mwini Mutuku and Dickens Otieno to NTU

NTU’s second year MA Fine Art students recently welcomed Dickens Otieno and Mwini Mutuku to their studio to learn about their art, the process behind how they create their extraordinary pieces, and their journey to becoming full time artists living in Nairobi.

    MA fine art students welcome Kenyan artists
    Dickens Otieno – Roy Pickering (Quarry Lab) – Veronica Pickering (SEE HERE festival) – Mwini Mutuku with NTUs second year MA Fine Art students

    NTU’s second year MA Fine Art students recently welcomed Dickens Otieno and Mwini Mutuku to their studio to learn about their art, the process behind how they create their extraordinary pieces, and their journey to becoming full time artists living in Nairobi.

    MA fine art students welcome Kenyan artists two at NTU

    Dickens Otieno inspired the group with his use of recycled materials.  Originally coming from a small Kenyan village, and with no funds for art materials, he began to find meaning in things that seemed otherwise useless.  Using discarded objects to create art that has a strong message of conservation and re-use.  This beginning has informed his artistic journey so far.  The stunning work he presented to the MA Fine Art group is made from old cans, woven over a mesh to form a large pliable textile (see picture).

    By contrast Mwini Mutuku likes to explore new approaches in his art practice, particularly the integration of organic and man-made materials with new digital and technological processes.  Although there is great diversity between each series of work, the use of laser cutting has become a signature style and can be seen as a common thread running throughout his pieces. Mwini showed some of his series “Ashes to Ashes, Art to Art”, which depicts imagery from endangered sites of rock art, laser scorched onto pumice stones and framed in individual caskets.  By creating contemporary art from the visual culture of past societies the work comments on the danger of such pictorial history becoming extinct.

    Dickens and Mwini are currently visiting Nottingham to exhibit their work as part of the ‘SEE HERE’ exhibition taking place at Old Neals Auction house on Mansfield road.

    The exhibition is running from 14th June to 13th July 2018, 10 am – 5 pm (not open Sundays).