Born in 1976, Kamau Njuguna Joseph better known as ‘Cartoon’ is a Kenyan artist living and working in Limuru. He’s known for his brightly coloured and densely patterned oil on canvas paintings, featuring strong African women as his predominant subject. Functioning as puzzles, his narrative compositions represent everyday life and culture in his village.
Working primarily with oil on canvas, Cartoon developed an authentic and consistent style of painting that combines storytelling, semi-abstract figures, patterns and symbols mostly drawn from common objects and life in his village. He divides the faces of his figures proportionately and presents most of his figures in spirals, twirls and some horizontally across the canvas. His titles are catchy, and they act as connections to his compelling narrations. The term ‘Acrobat’ reused in several title pieces, sounds like a clever word for ‘Specialist’. Also, it seems like fish is a special meal for family dinners in his village.
Right: Fishmonger, Oil on Canvas, 48x20c
He has exhibited in over 150 local and international group shows and has done 34 solo shows in East Africa, Europe, and South Korea. His paintings have been featured in different art books, magazines, and online publications and collected by renowned collectors, and galleries worldwide. A detail from one of his earlier paintings, Rumours in the Kitchen, was featured on the cover of the definitive book Contemporary African Art by Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, published in 1999. He has participated in the London Art Auction and Art Auction East Africa. TewasArt Africa visited his studio in Limuru for a catch-up and interview. Enjoy!
TewasArt Africa: Let’s begin with your Art Journey, How did you end up here?
Kamau Cartoon Joseph: I’m self-taught. I met a fellow artist, Shine Tani in the early 80s, who was already practicing as an artist, and he offered me guidance and an opportunity to join the Banana Hill Art group in 1994 led by him. I worked there until 2001. Subsequently, I sold my work and exhibited at the then Gallery Watatu and in different parts of the world. In 2002, I participated in the Scholars Exhibition of the Royal Overseas League in London and was awarded a one-year Artist-in-Residency in the UK. Its mission was to sponsor musicians and artists from Commonwealth countries. I was the winner from Africa and travelled to the UK for art workshops and exhibitions alongside other artists from different countries. I left the Banana Hill Art group in 2003 to a home studio, still in Banana. I lived and worked in Banana until 2020, then moved to Ngecha, my hometown, where I’m currently based.
TewasArt Africa: Discuss the role of women in your work. Why are they the focus?
Kamau Cartoon Joseph: Our women are hardworking and strong. In my village, you’ll never find our women indoors, they are either on the farm or attending to their families. This is my way of appreciating their sacrifices. I think this culture in our women transcends beyond Kenya, African women hold the family or the society together.
TewasArt Africa: The Jembe or Hoe is a common object in your work. What other objects in your work represent shared values and needs in your culture?
Kamau Cartoon Joseph: I come from a farming community in Central Kenya, we grow our food, and each type of crop grown within a region gives an identity to the region. Some crops were used as herbs to cure diseases and ailments when no modern hospitals existed. Special herbalists were trained to handle the task of preparing the medicine.
Another common object in every homestead in my village is a clay pot, used to prepare food for the whole family. Culturally, to harmonize the children from one family they were served from the same pot.
TewasArt Africa: Discuss migration, and its impact on cultural interdependence and, cross-pollination of cultures, and how they are represented in your work.
Kamau Cartoon Joseph: I grew up in an ordinary village in Central Kenya. My village has many different ordinary families with different origins. Each family was identified by a name that traces their roots (ancestry) and helps decode their culture.
My work is distinguished by its vibrant colours and richness in patterns representing the diversity in our African culture; the different colours and patterns represent different tribes, cultures, and nationalities across Africa, and different types of soils in Africa provide different food for different families.
Migration is also common in my village, people relocate from one region to another for various reasons, like marriage, land relocation – when you buy new land, for greener pastures, and to escape conflicts. It resulted in cross-pollination of cultures and social connection, for instance, marriage ceremonies, men in my village go to other villages to drink, and also share meals.
TewasArt Africa: What’s the driving force behind your creativity?
Kamau Cartoon Joseph: Unfortunately, we are losing our African culture to modernization, so my intention is to preserve my African roots through my paintings and use it to inform the younger generation about our cultural heritage. As much as there is a lot of pressure and expectations for me to embrace modernity, I’m reserved to some extent, to keep the traditions.