"My practice is primarily an investigation of materials. I am interested in everyday materials, especially those associated with the home. Many of my works reference women’s practices and traditional cultural identifiers. In the piece Valencia (CA,19) I employ methods of making passed down to me by my mother, in this case I use embroidery and beading as drawing. My explorations are intimately rooted in personal identity politics, I integrate personal items with items I believe speak to my cultural identity. In this case it is a bedsheet I used while living in California that has become the substrate for a painting. The title Valencia (CA,19) references the place in which the personal item was used for its intended purpose which I kept and chose to use as a substrate. The work is a mix of memory and place, like many of my other works. I adopt and transform workaday elements and processes. The work is a meditation on the different things that contribute to my personal culture, the many places i’ve lived and the traditions passed down to me. Valencia (CA,19) is both a meditation on how I am changed by the different cultures I encounter and how to preserve the traditions passed down to me."
“When making these works, I always feel like more could happen. It’s like holding your breath. The work could surprise you. Not all the space is taken up so there is enough room to feel things moving and also for the work to continue extending itself. I want to create a feeling of being suspended, of being in the middle of something.”
- Agnes Waruguru
Waruguru received a B.F.A. in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA in 2017. She has participated in residencies at the Rijksakademie van beldeende Kunsten in Amsterdam, ArtSpace Sydney, Saba Artists Residency in Lamu, VideoBrasil Biennial Artists Residency in Boicucanga, Brazil. Waruguru participated in the inaugural edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa, 2020. She has been nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs 2022, at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. She Participated in the 22nd Edition of the Videobrasil Biennial in São Paulo. Waruguru is currently showing in the 60th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Foreigners Everywhere.
