This piece is one of four executed by Peterson Kamwathi for his 2022 ‘Community’ series of artworks. It was acquired directly from Kamwathi after a brief but thoroughly engaging conversation at his studio one morning in Nairobi. Kamwathi, one of East Africa’s greatest living artists, made a name for himself in the last decade for his conceptual work that often shows, as he himself says, a ‘suspicion of color.’ The color scheme as well as the draughtsmanship are unequivocally his in this piece that juxtaposes the poignant image of a man carrying a child with the equestrian statue in Brussels of Leopold II, a controversial monument that Kamwathi presents upside down. The result is somewhat unnerving, raising, as expected, serious questions about politics, life and art.
