Accepted love - 1990

158 x 118 cm
Painting on canvas

Adjourner. Serial ll – Vol ll – D&M - 2000

120 x 160 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Dressing mirror - 2000

159 x 118 cm
Oil on canvas

DROSIE IN MALINDI - 1992

119 x 158 cm
Acrylic on canvas

DROSIE IN NAIROBI - 1992

119 x 159 cm
Acrylic on canvas

In the begining love (Mondor) Serial lll of D&M Vol ll - 2000

158 x 119 cm
Oil on canvas

Les aventures de Drosie et Richard N° 1 - 1994

248 x 248 cm
Oil on canvas

Nairobi Bomb Blast - 2005

159 x 360 cm
Tryptich (each panel: 62.6 x 47.24 inches - 159 x 120)
Acrylic on canvas

Teighlors stage show - 2007

118 x 158 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The ”Continental” – Serial ll – Vol ll of D&M - 2000

160 x 119 cm
Oil on canvas

The beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder - 2007

118 x 158 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The big bike – VOL ll – D&M - 2000

160 x 121 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The control point Serial ll – Vol ll D&M (By the telephone) - 2000

160 x 120 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The day of permission - 1990

118 x 158 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The dressing - 1990

119 x 160 cm
Acrylic on canvas

The Jetliner in the Pacific (Airport 77) - 1993

157 x 354 cm
Tryptich (each panel 61.81 x 46.46 inches - 157 x 118 cm)
Acrylic on canvas

The judgement seat. Serial ll – Vol ll - 2000

120 x 159 cm
Oil On Canvas

The last game. Serial lV – Vol ll D&M - 2000

159 x 118 cm
Oil on canvas

The Toronud, rêve de Drosie - 1994

121 x 161 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Tsunami - 2005

160 x 360 cm
Tryptich (each panel 62.99 x 47.2 inches - 160 x 119.9 cm)
Acrylic on canvas

Richard Onyango

Born in 1960 in Kisii, Kenya

Lives and works in Malindi, Kenya

For the first thirty years of his life Richard Onyango supported himself through a remarkable range of occupations—sign-painter, bus-driver, woodcarver, carpenter, fashion designer, furniture maker, farmer, animal trainer. He was born in the western highlands of Kenya, near Lake Victoria; while he was still very young his family moved to the developing costal regions. His father worked for the Tana River Irrigation Scheme, and Onyango became fascinated with the signs of industrial development in the African landscape: trucks, tractors, bulldozers, planes, etc. As a child he recorded such impressions in a series of sketches he called “photo pictures” of “whatever my eye could see.” He has explained further, “To keep things properly in mind I had to draw them since I didn’t have a camera to record what I would like to put in memory.”

These elements are still present in Onyango’s paintings today. He frequently chooses to depict situations that waver between the exaltation of imported technology and its fragility. Accidents, warnings, calls for prudence reveal a world constantly threatened by disaster and the unforeseeable. Like many contemporary African artists, Onyango’s pictorial language is characterized by its great legibility. Rather than evidence of primitivism, this legibility demonstrates the importance Onyango accords to representation as a means of direct communication. The unreal theatricality of his work similarly engages the spectator: the distortion of perspective and form and the moody tonality of the heightened palette dramatize the painting’s relationship with the spectator, who in turn becomes a helpless or complicit participant in the events described.

This psychological tension is notably present in the paintings that Onyango dedicated to his relationship with Drosie. White and curvaceous, the young woman is represented in imaginary or real situations that compress all the fantasies that Africa projects onto the West. Whether depicting the couples’ alternating domination and submission or the fascination exercised by a life-style synonymous with luxury and wealth, Onyango succeeds in inverting stereotypes and denouncing their inherent violence.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011

One & Only Onyango, Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya

2009 - 2010

Africa? Una nuova storia

Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy

2003

Laboratorio di Rochard Onyango

Atelier del Baglio di Stefano

Gibellina - Italy

2001

Franco Cancelliere Arte Contemporanea

Messina – Italy

2000

A.Bonito Oliva.

Fabbrica EOS

Milan – Italy

1999

Richard Onyango

MAMCO.

Geneva, Switzerland.

1999

Richard Onyango

Fabbrica Eos.

Milan, Italy.

1999

Richard Onyango

Franco Cancelliere Arte Contemporanea.

Messina, Italy.

1992

" The African Way of Painting " Richard Onyango

- Gallery of Contemporary East

African Art. Nairobi, Kenya.

- Fondazione MUDIMA.

Mailand, Italy.

- Salvatore Ala Gallery.

New York, USA.

1991

One man exhibition

Malindi Art gallery.

Malindi, Kenya.

1991

Richard Onyango

- Artifico & Artefatto Gallery.

- White Elephant Sea Gallery.

- Wild Side Shop.

- Malindi, Kenya.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2014

Ici l’Afrique/Here Africa - L’Afrique contemporaine à travers le regard de ses artistes, Musée des Suisses dans le Monde,Château de Penthes, Pregny-Chambésy, Switzerland

2007

Why Africa?

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Turin, Italy

2006

100% Africa

Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao, Spain

2005

Arts of Africa

Grimaldi Forum

Monaco - France

2005

African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Museum of Fine Art Houston

Houston - USA

2004 (travelling exhibition)

Africa Remix

Art contemporain d’un continent

* 24 July 2004 – 7 Nov 2004

Museum Kunst Palast

Düsseldorf - Germany

* 10 Feb 2005 – 17 April 2005

Hayward Gallery

London – England

* 15 May 2005 – 20 Aug 2005

Centre Georges Pompidou

Paris – France

* Feb – May 2006

Mori Art Museum

Tokyo

2003 –2004

Meridiana Immaginaria

Galeria Eclettica

Milan – Italy

2003

Dreams & Conflicts

50th Venice Biennal

Venice – Italy

2003

Nairobi Serena Hotel

Nairobi - Kenya

1999

" La Tua Africa "

Monte Di Pieta.

Messina, Italy.

1998

Africa Nera Cuore Rosso

Museo di Rosignano Marittimo. Italy.

1996

Neue Kunst Aus Afrika

Im Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.

Berlin, Germany.

1995

Seven Stories about African Art

Whitechapel Art Gallery.

London, Great-Britain.

1993

Presenze Africane.

Artisti stranieri in Italia

Umbertide. Rocca Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea.

Perugia, Italy.

1992

Wild Life Clubs Kenya Competition

National Museum.

Nairobi, Kenya.

1992

" TER "

- Contemporary Art Gallery

Termoli, Italy.

- Domus Jani, Istituto

Internazionale d'Arte Totale.

Illasi, Italy.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2008

The Life and Times of Richard Onyango, Richard Onyango, Kwani Publishers, 2008

2007

Why Africa?

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.

2006

100% Africa

Exhibition catalogue. Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

2005

Arts of Africa: The Contemporary Collection of Jean Pigozzi

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Skira Edition & Grimaldi Forum Monaco.

2005

African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2004

Africa Remix

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Hatje Cantz.

2000

La Tua Africa

Citta Di Messina. Monte Di Pieta.

Richard Onyango p.101-113.

" La tua Africa " Lucio Barbera, text in Italian p.13-32.

Adriano Parise Editore.

1999

Neue Kunst Aus Afrika

Im Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt.

Berlin, Germany.

1996

Contemporary art of Africa.

Onyango by Emmett Williams P.159-161. Text in English.

Edited by Andre Magnin & Jacques Soulillou.

Publisher Harry N. Abraams.

1996

Kunst Aus Kenya.

Sieben Ostafrikanische Maler.

Richard Onyango p.34-40, text in German.

Bernd Kleine-Gunk. Graphium Press.

1994

Richard Onyango

" The African Way of Painting ".

Book, texts in English, 130 pages.

Vehicules, Vessels, Trains & Planes

Afriano Parise Stampatore.

1992

Malindi 1988-1991.

A Poem, A Novel, A Movie.

Illustrations par Richard Onyango, text in Italian, English and French, 60 pages.

Sarenco. Adriano Parise Stampatore.