Kaloki Nyamai: Tuukelile Vaa

January 14 - February 27, 2026
Institute for the Humanities Gallery, 202 S. Thayer
Gallery Hours: M-F 9am-5pm

Kaloki Nyamai (*1985 in Kitui, Kenya) is a multidisciplinary artist working with installation, painting, and sculpture living and working in Nairobi. From an early age, his mother introduced him to painting and taught him to draw, fostering an ever-lasting interest in art throughout his life. He often finds inspiration in his grandmother’s stories of the Kamba people, a Bantu ethnic group of eastern Kenya. Using materials like acrylic paint, sisal rope, photo transfers, and stitched yarn, Nyamai’s free-hanging pieces evoke the healing of historical wounds and a collective yearning for renewal. His works blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and installation, creating cohesive, immersive experiences where past, present, and future converge poetically.

Nyamai studied Interior Design at the Buruburu Institute Of Fine Arts (BIFA) and then pursued painting after working in other creative fields. His large-scale paintings and mixed-media installations intricately explore historical narratives, examining their resonance in the present. Nyamai has shown his work across the globe in solo exhibitions at the Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2024); James Cohan Gallery, New York (2024); Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2023 and 2022); SEPTIEME Gallery, Paris (2019), and other venues. In 2023, he featured part of his series Dining in Chaos in the “Unlimited” section at Art Basel in Basel. He has participated in group exhibitions and biennials, most recently at the Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah (2025); The Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen (2024); the Kenyan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Venice (2022); and the Dakar Biennale (2022). His works are part of numerous private and institutional collections around the world, such as the Dallas Art Museum, the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, and the Arthur Primas Museum.