Efie Gallery presents So journer: The Difference Is the Same, an exhibition of new works by Kenyan artist Maggie Otieno. This marks Otieno’s first solo presentation with the gallery since it began representing her in 2024. Her practice spans nearly three decades and centres on the transformation of reclaimed and distressed materials.
As one of Kenya’s leading contemporary artists, Otieno is known for her large – scale public installations across Nairobi, including works situated outside Garden City Mall and at several of the city’s train stations. Working across wood, metal, and mixed media, her semi-abstract forms explore layered narratives of history, memory, human interaction, and environmental survival.
Featured in the exhibition are recent works created during a residency at El Anatsui Studio in Temu, Ghana, in summer 2025. Sculptures made from fragments of wooden canoes bear traces of memory and passage; some are hinged to resemble books, evoking the turning of a page and the opening of a new chapter.
Also included are new works produced at the artist’s studio in Karen, Nairobi — located within a larger art centre she both designed and built—centred around railway sleepers: historic timbers tied to East Africa’s colonial past. More than 150 years old, these timbers travelled from India to Kenya in the late nineteenth century to construct railway lines, carrying with them the stories of travellers,labourers, and communities.
Otieno’s process is intuitive and deeply responsive, guided by the scars, weight, and presence of her materials. Together, these works function as vessels of remembrance and renewal, grounding social and historical reflection in physical form.
Maggie Otieno (b. 1974) is based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Kenya, the UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, and the UK. Her public installations include works commissioned by Kenya Railways and The Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank. Her duo exhibition Solace in Soil at Efie Gallery (Dubai, 2024) reflected her ongoing dialogue with material and memory. In 2023, she was included in Anthropocene Museum 9.0 by Cave Bureau, curated by Tosin Oshinowo for the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. She studied Art and Design at the Creative Art Centre in Nairobi and later focused on sculpture influenced by mentorships and an evolving interest in form and material voice. In addition to her studio practice, Otieno is an active mentor and arts educator, frequently hosting emerging artists in her Nairobi studio, located within The Bric-A-Bac in Karen, an art centre that she both designed and built.
Source: Efie Gallery
