Gavin Kendo

A Pink Renaissance

  Artist Statement

  For me, A Pink Renaissance is about imagining a different way of living. It’s about coming back to the parts of ourselves that we’ve been taught to hide. The parts that are soft, emotional, curious, gentle, and full of wonder. Pink isn’t just a color in this body of work. It’s a philosophy. It’s a way of seeing the world and relating to the people around us. I think we’ve been taught to believe that strength has to look hard or emotionless, especially as African men. Showing vulnerability, expressing love, resting, or simply feeling deeply is often discouraged. I want to question that. I want to imagine a world where those things are celebrated instead. Through these paintings, I imagine spaces where people live in harmony with nature, with each other, and with themselves. They aren’t meant to be an escape from reality, but a reminder that we can choose to imagine something better. I believe every real change begins with the ability to picture a different future. I hope these works give people permission to slow down, to dream, and to reconnect with parts of themselves that may have been forgotten. If a renaissance is a rebirth, then I hope this one begins with kindness, with honesty, and with the courage to embrace our softer selves.

Gavin Kendo - Nairobi - August 2026

Artist's Bio

  Gavin Kendo is a Nairobi based visual artist whose paintings explore the intersection of identity, memory, nature, and emotional healing. Kendo creates dreamlike worlds inspired by lucid dreams, meditation, and everyday experience.

His paintings have become contemplative spaces that invite viewers to slow down, reflect, and reconnect with themselves. Central to his practice are human figures composed of foliage, flowers, and other organic forms. Through these hybrid beings, Kendo explores the belief that humans are not separate from nature but are extensions of it. His work suggests that caring for the natural world is inseparable from caring for ourselves, using landscapes and botanical forms as metaphors for growth, vulnerability, and renewal.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Kendo’s practice is increasingly informed by the psychological legacy of colonialism and its lasting impact on African societies. His paintings imagine an Africa that has healed from inherited colonial trauma, where rest, joy, imagination, and uninhibited self-expression are reclaimed as essential parts of everyday life. His work seeks to recover forms of expression that were suppressed, proposing tenderness, contemplation, and dreaming as quiet acts of liberation.

 Kendo has held solo exhibitions at Alliance Française Nairobi and Forster Gallery  in Zanzibar, where he also completed an artist residency. He has additionally  undertaken a residency with the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary  Art at Lion Sands Game Reserve in South Africa which led to his practice being  featured in Forbes in an article by Sarah Kingdom.  In October, Kendo is scheduled to present a solo exhibition at the National  Museum of Kenya and participate in a group exhibition at Youngblood.

Gallery in Cape Town, continuing to expand his practice across the African continent.