Donald Maingi is a Kenyan artist, art historian, educator, curator, and scholar whose work connects creative practice with scholarly research. His art is included in private and public collections across Kenya, India, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He began his artistic career at Kuona Trust Artists’ Studio in the early 1990s. In 2005, he briefly worked as an intern curator at Gallery Watatu, which ignited his interest in documenting the history of Kenya’s contemporary art. After engaging with Etale Sukuro at Sanaa Art Promotions, he committed to studying Kenyan art. In 2007, he received an international scholarship for his PhD in History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London. His thesis, “Constructing and Deconstructing a Nation: The Emergence of Contemporary Kenyan Art (1963–1993),” has led to his forthcoming book, which will be published by the end of this year in Germany. Maingi contributes to multidisciplinary research on transitional justice and Swahili studies. He is currently writing his second book, Sanaa, Taswira, Nyaraka (Art, Image, Archive): A Heritage and Legacy of a Golden Age of Swahili Modernism, and has published various academic works. He serves as a lecturer at the College of North West London and actively participates in human rights advocacy.
The Sisi Kwa Sisi Collective was founded in 1983 amid turbulent political conditions following Kenya’s failed military coup in 1982. Etale Sukuro is a cofounder of the group, which was made up of 12 artists, including Kangara wa Njambi (b. 1957), Kabacia Gatu (b. 1951), Gakunju Kaigwa (b. 1958), Mwaniki wa Gachia, Zarina Patel (1935–2024),…
