Richard Onyango Biography
Richard Onyango (1960 - ) was born in 1960 in Kenya. This contemporary African artist continues to live in his native country, in the city of Malindi where he continues his pictorial career.
Onyango has exhibited in many major exhibitions from 2003 onwards such as "Africa Remix" at the Hayward Museum of the Art, Houston and at the 2003 Venice Biennale. Several pieces of his work are a central part of the Pigozzi Collection (CAAC art) and more recently his work was exhibited in 'Africa.. Telling a world', Milan, 2017.
In Onyango's early years he lived on the coast with his family, where his father was part of a thriving industrial development. He developed a fascination for all the equipment around him (bulldozers, tractors, trucks, planes), which still form the backdrop to his paintings today. They are often associated with drama and disaster and, remarkably, painted from memory.
The viewer often becomes a helpless spectator of the story that is represented on canvas or panel.
As a young man he was both a sign painter and musician, carpenter, carver, fashion and furniture designer.
His painting style reflects this career, through the use of strong graphic elements, intense contrasts, contours and dramatic lighting and colour.
