Exhibition: The Narrative Painter by Joseph Cartoon, Dec. 9 2018 – Jan. 27 2019 @ Red Hill Art Gallery

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Dates: On Until January 27, 2019
Venue: Red Hill Art Gallery
Time: 11 am – 5 pm

About
Cartoon’s art is not conceptual, nor political. It is personal. He is a narrative painter, visualizing in his own distinctive way local values and culture, a perfect and idyllic world of a disappearing tradition.

Like a puzzle the viewer finds his/her way through the narrative. Entwined and twisted figures float, swirl and tumble across the picture plane, embedded in a multi-patterned, ornamental, fabric like background. The central figure is the caring female, who, in an ideal world, provides food and shelter for the family.

Joseph Cartoon was born in 1976 in Ngecha, Kenya.
In 1994, he joined the Banana Hill Art Group, an offspring of the Ngecha Artists’ Association.

In the 1990s, the Ngecha Artists’ Association was a group of young, self-taught artists, without academic or artistic education, founded by Sane Wadu, Wanju Brush and Chain Muhandi. The Banana Hill Art Group was led by the artist Shine Tani, who became Joseph Cartoon’s mentor.

Joseph Cartoon was a member of Banana Hill Art Group until 2001. He developed his own authentic, semi-abstract, ornamental, pattern-rich and colourful style of painting, featuring strong and powerful African women as his predominant subject.

Joseph Cartoon has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in East Africa, Europe and South Korea. In 2002, he participated in the Scholars Exhibition of the Royal Overseas League in London and was awarded a one-year Artist-in-Residency in the UK.

He returned to Kenya in 2003 and is living and working as a freelance artist in Banana Hill, just outside Nairobi.

Exhibition: Life Experiences by Joseph Cartoon, Until Nov. 30 2014 @ Sushi Soo – Japanese Restaurant

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Exhibition by Joseph Cartoon

Dates: Until November 30, 2014
Venue: Sushi Soo – Japanese Restaurant
Location: Opposite Komo Lane, Off Argwings Kodhek Road, Wood Avenue

About
Joseph was born in the Village of Ngecha in 1976, where most Kenyan artists have their roots. However after attaining school age, his parents moved to Lari division in Kiambu where he attended both primary and secondary school. Cartoon started drawing when he was still in primary school, art and crafts being his favourite subject besides history and agriculture. While in primary school, Cartoon studied art and crafts for nearly 6 years, though he never continued with it as a subject in secondary school due to the lack of Art in the syllabus.

After completing his secondary education, he met artist Shine Tani on his way to his uncle’s house and It is through him that Cartoon’s talent in art was revived again. Through his guidance and mentoring he introduced Cartoon to Gallery Watatu in 1994 where the late Ruth Scheffner purchased three of his paintings.

Since then, cartoon has grown as a talented artist and has so far participated in 50 group exhibitions both locally and internationally. He has also had over 8 solo exhibitions in Kenya and overseas. Apart from exhibitions, Cartoon’s work has been featured in local and international magazines and books. In 2001 he won a prestigious art award through ROSL- Overseas League and travelled for a 1 month residency in Scotland and 3 week travelling exhibition in London and Edinburgh. Over 160 paintings have been collected by individual art collectors and companies in the last 10 years of his art career.

Since 1996, Cartoon has participated in Art Action and Expiation in Northern Ireland, which is held yearly to raise funds to cater for schools around the slums in Nairobi. Over 500 children benefit from this project.
The drive behind the passion in Cartoon’s heart is to see Kenyan and African art exhibited worldwide and artists free to express themselves globally.

Exhibition: Life Expression by Joseph Cartoon, Nov. 3-31 2012 @ National Museum

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Dates: November 3-31, 2012
Venue: Creativity Gallery, National Museum
Entry: Museum Rates Apply

About Joseph Cartoon
Since selling his first piece in 1994 to Gallery Watatu, one of the earliest & most prestigious galleries of the time, Kenyan artist Cartoon (Joseph Njuguna) has participated in numerous group exhibitions and solo shows in East Africa, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Denmark, Japan, and Korea among other countries.

Some of his achievements include appearing on the cover of Contemporary African Art, a prestigious annual catalogue on Contemporary Art in Africa (1999) and winning the Royal Oversees League Award (2001, as well as being the only nominee from Africa). The latter award earned him a 2 year residency in the UK after which he continued to participate in local and world art projects that have seen him become one of the most collected artists in Kenya.

The powerful interplay of symbolism and colour is outstanding in Cartoon’s art that mainly features the traditional African woman, folk tales and daily aspects of the African family. Other outstanding features are mushrooms indicating the rich highlands where he was born and a chameleon acknowledging ever changing times.

Cartoon is married with two boys and lives and paints in Nairobi.

Exhibition: Recent Paintings by Joseph Cartoon, Oct. 4-23 2011 @ Alliance

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Dates: October 4-23, 2011
Venue: Alliance Française, Ground Floor gallery

Cartoon is one of many Kenyan artists whose career started at Banana Hill Art Studio and was propelled to further heights by the enigmatic Ruth Schaffner of Gallery Watatu in the 1980s and 1990s.
His work is dominated by traditional lifestyles and rural settings painted in vibrant colours.