Opening Session with Syowia Kyambi.

Syowia Kyambi recognizes the power of entwining the personal with the political and the entangled nature of both. Incorporating photography, video, drawing, sculpture and performance installation Kyambi’s approach takes aim at the politics of the time as well as its legacy today. What is remembered, what is archived, and how we see the world anew. Kyambi engages with museums and/or ethnographic collections, personal and public archives, bridging disciplines, visually interrogating our histories, the representation of identity, the effects on the psyche and the nuances in our relationships to each other and the world we live in.

She holds a Master in Fine Arts (Plymouth University UK) and is Co-founder of a processed based international residency program focused on autonomy and sustainability (“Untethered Magic”, since 2019) and Co-director of the “Transart Institute” (since 2023).

She was represented in the Pavilion of Kenya, La Biennale di Venezia in 2022 as well as in exhibitions in Frankfurt/Main (2022-23), the Lisson Gallery in London (2023) or the Dakar Biennale in Senegal (2022). Her works include a permanent commission ‘Infinity: Flashes of the Past’ Nairobi National Museum (2007).

She is the recipient of the Centre for Art Design & Social Research fellowship (2018-2020), the UniArts Helsinki fellowship (2018), the Smithsonian Artist Research fellowship (2017) and the Art in Global Health grant from the Wellcome Trust Fund, United Kingdom (2013). Artist residencies include PRAKSIS, Norway (2019), Delfina Foundation, UK (2016) and IASPIS, Sweden (2013). Her work is held in a number of collections including the Kouvola Art Museum, Finland, and the Sindika Dokolo Foundation.

For her work and projects see also her website: https://syowiakyambi.com/