“Since my college days, I’ve been experimenting a lot with different materials. To me, each idea normally chooses its own material.”

Born in 1985 in Nakuru, Kenya, David Thuku is a contemporary artist who currently lives and works in Nairobi.

Thuku graduated at the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts in Nairobi and is now a painter and mixed media artist. 

In 2013 he co-founded Brush-Tu Art Studio, a creative collective providing artists within a studio space, with the purpose of a collaborative exchange.

Thuku works in a multiplicity of media, from conventional oil paint on canvas, to a more recent focus on paper. He cuts and peels paper away to reveal carefully constructed images. 

He explores the nature of social structure, identity, and urban migration through semi-abstract portraits. Thus, he analyzes the everyday space we deal with, peeling layers away to uncover hidden dimensions. 

The artist uses repeated patterns, which have a particular meaning, it creates a sense of space, perspective, comparison, and implies continuity.