Afrikanizm | Onyis Martin – Kenyan Contemporary Artist Exploring Memory

"My work centres on contemporary urban environments and how these spaces are shaped by the politics of ownership and access, movement and displacement, and how they contain some form of collective memory."

MEET

Onyis Martin

Onyis Martin (b. 1987, Kenya) is a Nairobi-based contemporary artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, and more recently, video art. Deeply engaged with the politics of urban life, migration, ownership, and memory, Martin’s practice examines how contemporary cities shape — and are shaped by — displacement, restricted movement, and collective trauma.

After leaving Aquinas Secondary School in 2006, Martin trained at Mukuru Art and Craft Centre, Nairobi, graduating in 2010. He also holds training in neurolinguistic programming and family constellation therapy, an influence that subtly informs the psychological dimensions of his work.

His mixed-media artworks and installations often incorporate repurposed materials, visual codes, and layered textures that mimic the complexities of informal cityscapes. Through this aesthetic, Martin offers poignant reflections on the fragility and resilience of marginalised communities navigating rapid urban transformation.

Martin has exhibited widely across Africa and internationally, including:

Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2019) – Still Tomorrow to High Five You Yesterday

ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg (2018)

Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Adelaide, Australia (2018)

Residencies: Bag Factory (South Africa, 2017), Asiko Art School (2016), The Factory Lamu (2016), Ostrale (Germany, 2015)

In 2017, he won First Prize for Merit at the prestigious ABSA L’Atelier Award, cementing his position as a rising voice in African contemporary art.

Martin’s work continues to resonate globally as he blends personal memory, socio-political critique, and layered visual language to question who controls space, movement, and meaning in the modern African city.

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