Dickens Otieno is a Kenyan artist who is known for his large-scale woven sculptures using scrap metal. He was featured in the 2022 Kenyan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
Career Otieno studied engineering, but was unable to find work. This left him spending time around the streets of Nairobi where he discovered the work of street artists Otieno Kota and Otieno Gomba.
Otieno then went on to work with the pair from 2003 to 2009 doing street art and painting. He then branched out on his own.
With scarce resources for art materials, Otieno began experimenting with waste materials. He originally started making sculptures with bottle caps, similar to Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, before moving onto his signature style of weaving tin cans into a metal armature. Among Otieno's pieces is a school uniform made with flattened bottle caps.
Otieno's engineering background does play a role in his art, as the wire frames he creates to form the skeletons of his woven designs require a certain amount of internal engineering.
Personal life
Otieno is originally from a village in Migori County, Western Kenya. His mother was a tailor and father was a teacher for deaf children. His father had wanted him to be an engineer, but he ended up being inspired by his mother's work as a seamstress.
Selected exhibitions 2022 Venice Biennale, Kenyan Pavilion 2021, Mtaani, Steve Turner, Los Angeles (solo) 2021, East African Encounters, Cromwell Place, London 2020, Mabati Tailor, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (solo) 2018, See Here, Old Neals Auction House, Nottingham 2018, Africa/Africa, Total Arts Courtyard Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai 2017, Young Guns, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi 2016, The Third Dimension, Circle Art Gallery 2016, UNI-FORM MULTI-FORM, Roots Contemporary, Nairobi 2016, Paint and Metal, National Museum of Nairobi
References