Artist profile · 3 works on the wall
WANJIKU MWANGI
Mixed-media collage artist in Nairobi. Wanjiku cuts, tears, and reassembles city ephemera — matatu stickers, market receipts, newspaper obituaries — into large-scale portraits of the people the city overlooks.
THE PRACTICE
primary disciplines first →🎨
Paper Collage
Builds every portrait from paper the city already discarded — matatu route receipts, market price lists, obituary pages — torn and layered rather than painted.
primary🖨️
Archival Printmaking
Smaller studies from the same series reproduced as archival prints, extending each collage's life beyond the original board.
primary📷
Street Photography
Spends most working days walking her subjects' routes with a camera before a single piece of paper gets torn — the reference work behind every collage.
secondary🧵
Community Workshops
Runs monthly paper-collage workshops for young people in her neighbourhood, teaching the same cut-and-layer technique her own portraits are built from.
secondaryON THE WALL
prices in the corner of each card →MILESTONES
most recent first ↑- 2026
Obituaries series debuts
Exhibited the eight-piece Obituaries print series alongside the original collage studies it was drawn from.
- 2025
Matatu Portraits series completes
Finished the twelfth and final piece portraying Nairobi's matatu conductors, each built entirely from that route's own paper.
- 2023
First solo show, Paper City
A single-artist exhibition of early collage work — the first time the matatu-sticker technique was shown publicly.
- 2021
Began the Matatu Portraits series
Started collecting route receipts and stickers from Nairobi's matatu network — the raw material for what became her signature series.
COLLABORATIONS
ongoing, not archived →ArtCollect Platform
Featured artist on ArtCollect, with new collage work added to the platform as each series completes.
Neighbourhood Paper Workshops
Monthly collage workshops for teenagers in her own neighbourhood, teaching the cut-and-layer technique from scratch with found paper.
Matatu Owners' Association Mural
A collaborative mural with three matatu saccos, translating the portrait series onto the sides of two working vehicles.
From the studio floor
THE PHOTO DUMP
