Presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Nairobi, Kenya until March 30, 2022, the exhibition « I Hope So » is an overview of the creations of artist Sane Wadu that offers to see drawings, paintings and prints.
This survey of his career reveals many years of intense perceptions of Sane Wadu and his pictorial reflections on issues of religion, otherness, orientation and governmental issues within Kenyan culture.
Propelled by change and the dormant conceivable outcomes that arise in the ordinary, Sane Wadu is himself an explorer on a journey. As a viewer and audience, his works, however basic, are creations made for a near future in which there is hope for something better. He never stops moving forward and takes us with him on this journey of all desire of a person, a group, a country.
Sane Wadu
Born in Nyathuna in 1954, Sane Wadu has developed an ingenious practice and vocation over forty years. As one of the founding members of the Ngecha Artists Association, a junction of self-taught artists, and through his singular teaching and creative practices, he remains one of the leading living contemporary artists in the district. He started painting in 1984, after exploring many professions such as teaching and then working as a court representative while seeking to express himself, he embarked on cultural creation as an essayist, playwright and theater actor, but eventually realized that these activities did not allow him to communicate as he wished.
Because he abandoned the current work for a less sure vocation of artist, his companions called him crazy, which manifested his deeply rebellious position towards his critics and in resistance to the frenzy they had credited him with.
The clarity and sharpness of his conviction and his ability to overcome cultural presumptions remain at all times present in his practice.
A maverick artist in search of the unthinkable, his ability to change himself and his reality once again imbues his work with a provocative power. Disruption runs through his work, shaping his choice of basic subjects and the language he uses to paint. Denying the scholastic aspects of painting and ordinary assumptions of rationality, Sane Wadu intentionally incorporates printed elements delivered upside down and makes double-sided works.
Occasionally, Sane Wadu‘s inexact signs function as unassuming demonstrations of disruption that continually challenge the norm while giving herself the opportunity to communicate her thoughts with a power all her own. As a reminder, artist Sane Wadu‘s « I Hope So » exhibition is open until March 30, 2022 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Nairobi.