A Vibrant and Free Spirit: An Afternoon with Njeri Kinuthia

Artist Njeri Kinuthia. Photo by Laura Serdiuk for Women in the Arts, Inc.

April 26, 2024

Njeri Kinuthia (b. 1998 in Kiambu, Kenya) is a textile artist and painter focusing on femininity, the body, and independence. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Design from Machakos University in Kenya. In 2021, she earned the Provost Scholarship from the University of Central Florida to participate in the Emergent Media, Studio Art, and Design Master of Fine Arts program. Kinuthia’s achievements as a graduate student are impressive and numerous—she earned the Second Prize for the Arts Innovation Competition at UCF, Outstanding Artist at the Platform Show of the Orlando Museum of Art, a Disney City Arts Stipend, a United Arts Public Project Award, and the Eclat Law Art Prize, each worth $5,000, all in the year 2023. This year she was selected as one of the ten artists exhibiting for the Florida Prize hosted by the Orlando Museum of Art. We spent an afternoon in her studio at UCF to talk about art, culture, and empowerment, both from within and from one’s community. 

ZRF: What is your story? How did you become an artist?

NK: I started drawing officially in 2017. That was when I took drawing seriously, but I started sketching when I was in high school. And before that, I didn't know I could draw. I started with fashion sketches, my classmates thought they were really good, so they encouraged me to keep making them. Then I went to university to pursue fashion design, and my professor noticed that I was doing very well. So I actually started drawing towards fine arts, instead of fashion illustration. I started doing portraits. People were paying me to do commission work for them. I got really into it, and I started painting. I was self-taught because I was in fashion school. So we weren’t taught fine arts, more of fashion stuff, or sewing, or dressmaking. I really had fun. I started taking part in exhibitions in Kenya. My work was selling and then I decided to pursue a Master's. I applied to the US and got a Provost Scholarship from UCF. And that's how I came to the United States!

ZRF: Do you have a favorite artist or artists you would consider a mentor? 

NK: A mentor? Well, I have those that I look up to. One of them is Mickalene Thomas. I love her work. Because when I came to the US, I was interested in working in the nude. But in my country, it wasn't something that was very popular because it's conservative. Mickalene Thomas, her work has been very inspiring. Also, Renee Cox, who I got to meet during my MFA show. I think that's exciting for me when I see women comfortable in their identity or sexuality.

ZRF: You said that you studied fashion. How does fashion, especially traditional African textiles, inform your work?

NK: I would say a lot, especially when it comes to textiles. Fun fact is, before I considered getting an MFA from the US, I considered doing textile design in South Africa because I really enjoyed working with textiles. African fabrics are considered to have an interesting history of globalization.

It's inspired by Indonesian Batik which was introduced by the Dutch and then it was really embraced by Africans. So it became very African, some of them have African patterns, but some of them are just really graphic and very strong, contrasting colors, and it really pops. I feel like a lot of Africans when it comes to their fabrics are maximalists. 

ZRF: Do the patterns and words on the fabric mean anything?

NK: Each of them means something they are actually used for equivocal communication, mostly among women, -you want to tell your neighbor something, but you don't want to face them directly. It's something difficult for you to say, instead you can just give them one of these fabrics. It could be for someone who's knocking at your door, borrowing things every time and you can give that fabric to them. This one says I will remember you forever. So you can tie this on your waist when you're going to see someone that you love. It's a direct message that you're not really able to verbalize. So it's something I've been using in my work.

ZRF: You've mentioned one of your artworks being women covering themselves. I saw the Smothered Series, and Mama, which I really like. Can we talk about them?

NK: When I started the Smothered Series, I was actually doing a self-portrait of myself with a head wrap. I was like, well, it looks beautiful, but I don't feel like I'm really expressing what I have felt, that culture has limited my identity. So I decided to cover my face as well. The first one that you just saw was the first one I did in the series. I went back and did some research on my culture and remembered that one of the traditions that we have is that during weddings, the women present are covered up with these fabrics as the bridegroom tries to select their wife, during their bride price or dowry payment ceremony. I thought, huh, okay, I see where I got the subconscious inspiration. So I did a whole series of that. And it was the first time I was coming back to color after doing so many charcoal drawings. I made vibrant works with African fabrics that anyone instantly recognized as African. There was that cultural connection. And as I progressed, I did five or six of them. 

ZRF: Is there a connection between the series and one of your other works, Reverend Njeri?

NK: Reverend Njeri is one of my most successful works, in my opinion. It's currently in South Carolina. It's a self-portrait of me looking down. It’s hung very high up. And then there's all this fabric draping to the floor. With that, I was sort of taking the position of authority. It mimics religious or cultural authority with a robe and mitre-shaped head wrap. I thought to myself, how can someone go inside this? How can someone interact with this?

Hail Reverend Njeri

My initial idea was for people to step on the fabric around and that's how people will interact with it. Then I thought of elevating it so no one can touch it but me. I did this elevation because I didn't want to keep feeding the narrative that culture, especially African culture, is only oppressive. That's how Mama came to be. It was from the Smothered Series. I also wanted to show that side from empowerment and liberation.

Hail Reverend Njeri inspired Mama, whom you can go inside and there's all these pillows, these lights, and it's very cozy inside. Then I received a grant to make it. I had my mom ship a lot of fabric and my classmates donated a lot of fabric for me to use. It was very well received.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

ZRF: What is your art process? I know you talked about it a little bit already. But maybe this question is for focusing on it. What are your perspectives on art making?

NK: I was finding myself with fabric, setting up my phone, and just taking pictures. The process of suffocating myself trying to take pictures, and staging the whole thing makes me think about the kind of suffocation that some women have to go through, especially in a country like mine or other countries where women are really repressed. I take reference pictures and then I look at these, and then I use those to draw. I do that with my body as well. I have my classmates take pictures too. When I'm sewing, everything is just improvisational, I spread out the fabrics on the floor and I use color theory to decide what will be next to each other. I don't sketch out when I'm sewing.

ZRF: You mentioned about how there are forty-two different tribes in Kenya. Can you tell me a little bit about the tribe you belong to and your culture?

NK: I have my own tribe. I am Kikuyu so I speak the Kikuyu language. That's my native language. Swahili is my second language, which is used as the national language that everyone understands, English is my third language. So I was born and raised in a small village called Thogoto. I come from a very Christian-centered background, which is very, conservative. Being someone who likes being free, I found it very challenging growing up around a kind of culture that is very patriarchal. The man has to pay your bride price, you're required to be the wife, doing all the chores and just being the wife. Becoming what people considered a wife to be in those cultures. It just didn't sit right with me. That's why I decided to do some of my work as a way of fighting back these restrictions. But we do have some beautiful, fun, cultural activities and songs that I grew up singing and dancing to as a kid. Fun memories like the food that we make that I missed so much and the community. We know all our neighbors we play with, all the neighbors’ kids, and it's the community fields that are really enjoyed.

ZRF: How has your experience been like being an artist in the US, especially in Orlando?

NK: Being in Orlando has been really good for me. Let me start from where I am right now. The University of Central Florida has been extremely kind to me. First of all, I came here on a scholarship. Some of the awards I've won are actually through UCF.  And it's been very helpful. The community has been extremely accepting. The whole of my first year I never applied to shows and never showed my work outside of UCF, because I was very scared of the outside perception, also because I was talking about cultural things, and I wasn't sure how people would perceive those, because they're very specific to me. But it was very surprising to me when I had my first exhibition here.

Now I won the Éclat Award and I had my work at this gallery in a law firm. There were women attending the opening night, and even men, and they felt very touched by my work. They identify with what I'm trying to say. It was a sigh of relief when I saw that people do care about what I'm saying. It doesn't matter if they're white, or they're Asian, or whatever, they can actually identify with my story. That was so refreshing to me. Mama was in the United Arts Magazine. The biggest one is being invited to be part of the Florida Prize. Just being considered one of the most progressive artists across the state was just something mind-blowing for me. Orlando has been very good to me, I don't want to move. I'm gonna stay here with my partner, Tony, who attends all my shows, helps transport all these things and puts some of them together. We're going to stay here and I will continually pursue opportunities both locally, and beyond. 

ZRF: I think it’s great that you want to stay! How did you react when you found out you were chosen to be one of the ten artists vying for the Florida Art Prize?

NK: Being chosen, chosen out of thousands of artists all across Florida is such a big honor that all ten of us are like: Oh My Gosh! It's huge. It was such a big deal being in it. You get a lot of space [at the Orlando Museum of Art]. I have over 1,200 square feet of space at the museum to work with. I'm so excited.

ZRF: Are there other forms that you are interested in exploring?

My biggest interest actually right now is stained glass because, when Mama was up and I was inside it, the way the light responded and interacted with it from inside, the fabric looked like stained glass. I’m thinking of how I can pursue that. The good thing with the museum [Orlando Museum of Art], is that I’ll be activating those huge windows! So when the light comes in it, does look like stained glass. I’m thinking of how I can have an outdoor weatherproof installation similar to Mama, because I’m also thinking of how to become a public artist.

Mama. Photo courtesy of the artist.

ZRF: What's next for the artist Njeri Kinuthia?

I want to show in New York! I want to have a big show in New York. I want to show in London. 

Zeny Recidoro-Fesh

Zeny May Recidoro is a Filipina writer and artist. She is a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council fellowship grant from 2018 to 2020. She has a degree in Art Studies from the University of the Philippines, and an MFA in Art Writing and Criticism from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She writes short stories, essays about art, and making art. She lives in Orlando with her husband and their cat, Beau.

Photo credits: 1-Laura Serdiuk. 2, 3, 6-Zeny Fesh. 4, 5, 7-Courtesy of the artist.