Meek GICHUGU, 1968

Meek Gichugu was born John Mburu Njenga Gichugu at the village of Ngecha near Limuru, Kenya.

Gichugu 's chosen name and mild manner belie a mind full of profound thought and startling images.

Like many of the 'Ngecha artists', Meek Gichugu began drawing and painting as a child, encouraged by his elder brother who was his mentor. Meek then came to Gallery Watatu after a workshop at the Goethe Institute in Nairobi and, in 1991, he sold most of the 87 pieces in the one-man-show "Forward with the past". Meek Gichugu was 22 years old.

A painter of great skill and undeniable talent, Meek speaks to his audience through wonderfully finished canvases which are at once entrancing and unsettling .
The astonishing surrealistic assemblies of people, machinery, fruit, animals, and balls remains with the observer well after one has moved on to the next picture.

Gichugu 's soothing use of colour, given the slightly sinister motif present in all his compositions, acts as a wonderful paradox. The colours, though changed, remain curiously restrained , bordering on temperate. Mustard and ochre earth tones reminiscent of his native Ngecha soil have given away to the blues and reds that were once modest highlights on the canvases.

The thatched kikuyu hut, the ladder, the fleshy petals of a luscious flower, all are recurring themes in Meek Gichugu 's work. His compositions manage to be at once archaic and yet futuristic.