The figures inhabiting these paintings do not belong entirely to reality. Suspended between dream and ritual, memory and projection, grounding and transcendence, they emerge like actors crossing an unfinished stage.

Throughout the exhibition, archetypes continuously shift roles: the grounded self becomes the dreamer, reflection becomes distortion, and aspiration becomes both hope and blindness. Animals, objects, landscapes, and elemental forces operate as symbolic presences within a theatre where consciousness itself performs.

Structured as a sequence of acts, the exhibition unfolds as a journey through dreaming, expansion, conflict, awakening, transformation, memory, and dissolution. As the works move between intimate psychological states and wider cosmological landscapes, the boundaries between shadow and reflection, reality and projection, gradually begin to dissolve.

Rather than presenting fixed meanings, the paintings invite viewers into unstable territories of perception where participation itself becomes part of the performance. Like a play that continues after the curtain falls, these worlds remain alive in the mind long after the audience has left.

Lincoln Mwangi

Born 1996, Nairobi, Kenya

Lincoln Mwangi is a contemporary painter, sculptor and multidisciplinary artist based in Nairobi, Kenya. He studied Drawing and Painting at the Buruburu Institute of Fine Arts and is a founding member of Kairos Futura, a Nairobi-based artist-led collective working at the intersection of art, futurism and community, bringing together artists, designers, scientists and storytellers to explore collective imagination, ecological futures and alternative visions of tomorrow. He is also a member of the Brush Tu Artist Collective.

Mwangi’s practice spans painting, portraiture, sculpture and installation, drawing inspiration from everyday encounters, social realities and the relationship between individuals, communities and their environments. His works often move between intimate observation and symbolic narratives, employing anonymous figures, animals, landscapes and recurring objects as archetypal presences through which emotional, social and existential themes emerge.

Questions of identity, memory, transformation, humanity’s relationship with nature, vulnerability and collective experience run throughout his practice. Influenced by wider conversations around ecological futures, environmental responsibility and climate justice, his recent works increasingly expand these explorations into speculative territories where personal narratives intersect with broader reflections on society, imagination and possible futures.

Mwangi held his first solo exhibition, A Painted Book of Life, Time and Feelings, at GravitArt Gallery, Nairobi (2021). His work has since been presented in exhibitions and projects across Kenya and internationally, including Handle With Care, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (2026); Pyenga 2.0, Brush Tu Art (2025); Dream Weaving, French Embassy, Nairobi (2025); Hakuna Utopia, Kairos Atelier (2024); Nairobi Space Station (2023); Lamu Space Station (2021); I Have a Dream, AKKA Project, Venice; Facing the Sun, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; Devil in the Details, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; Art X Fair, Lagos; and Africa and Other 54 Countries: Focus on Kenya, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.

Mwangi was the Finale Winner in the Student Category at the Manjano Exhibition (2017) and was selected for the Emerging Painters Invitational (2020). He also participated in the African Art Trust Fund Residency at the Anidan Art Center in Lamu, Kenya, further expanding his engagement with collaborative and interdisciplinary artistic practices.