Dickens Otieno Explained

Dickens Otieno
Birth Date:	1979
Field:	Visual Art / Textiles / Sculpture
Training:	Technical University of Kenya

Dickens Otieno is a Kenyan artist who is known for his large-scale woven metal sculptures and was featured in the 2022 Kenyan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.

Biography

Dickens Otieno is from Migori County, Western Kenya.^{[1] [2]} His mother was a tailor^[3] and father was a teacher for deaf children. Though he had a degree in engineering, Otieno was unable to find work, which left him hanging around the streets of Nairobi where he discovered the work of street artists Otieno Kota and Otieno Gomba.^[4] Dickens Otieno went on to work with the pair from 2003-2009 doing street art and painting prior to bridging out on his own. Coming from a village, and with scarce resources for art materials, he began experimenting with waste materials.^[5] He originally started making sculptures with bottle caps like El Anatsui before moving onto his signature style of weaving tin cans into a metal armature.

Selected exhibitions

• 2022 Venice Biennale, Kenyan Pavilion ^[6]
• 2021, Mtaani, Steve Turner, Los Angeles (solo)^[7]
• 2021, East African Encounters, Cromwell Place, London
• 2020, Mabati Tailor, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi (solo)
• 2018, See Here, Old Neals Auction House, Nottingham
• 2018, Africa/Africa, Total Arts Courtyard Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai
• 2017, Young Guns, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi
• 2016, The Third Dimension, Circle Art Gallery
• 2016, UNI-FORM MULTI-FORM, Roots Contemporary, Nairobi
• 2016, Paint and Metal, National Museum of Nairobi

Notes and References

1. Web site: Studio Visit: Dickens Otieno . TPAAE . 8 February 2024 . 5 January 2023.
2. Web site: Dickens Otieno - Mabati Tailor, 2020 . 8 February 2024 . en.
3. Web site: Dickens Otieno: Mtaani . Contemporary And . 19 February 2024 . de.
4. Web site: An artist with something to say about ‘the teachers’ cry’, courage, and Kenyans’ bumbling sense of art: Meet Dickens Otieno, Kenya’s metal weaver par excellence Daisy Ouya . 8 February 2024 . en . 1 April 2016.
5. Web site: MA Fine Art students welcome Kenyan artists Mwini Mutuku and Dickens Otieno to NTU . www.ntu.ac.uk . 8 February 2024 . en.
6. Web site: Venezia . Biennale Arte 2022 Kenya . La Biennale di Venezia . 8 February 2024 . en . 14 April 2022.
7. Web site: Dickens Otieno . Circle Art Gallery . 19 February 2024 . en.