Inside the World of Michael Soi, one of the Kenyan most Controversial Artists

Kenyan social commentator and artist Michael Soi is satirically documenting the political, social, economic and urban lifestyle in Nairobi with his colourful and catchy paintings. His bold and detailed paintings of half-naked, naked, well dressed women and men, and large portrait images embody his personal reflection of the contemporary lifestyles of people of Nairobi.

Like many African artists who use their works as public broadcast vehicles, and as mirrors to reveal their interpretations and understandings of issues around them, Soi is enthused by the routines of the Kenyan citizenry based in Nairobi where he resides.  

“I am motivated by the double standards of Kenyan life,” he admits. “I just love Nairobi to bits. It has so much to talk about as an artist or creative person. I Iove to document the lives of the Kenyan population.”

Michael’s paintings, which are mostly produced from acrylics on paper, look funny and slightly comical and cartoon-ish at first sight. However, underneath the simultaneously oversimplified and exaggerated physical features of his subjects lies a deeper understanding of the complex nuances of public and private social relationships. Each work of art is more than certain to leave his audiences highly engaged in thought, and publicly or mentally deliberating the themes he cheekily addresses. Corruption, socio-political matters, Chinese involvement and interest in Kenyan affairs, the treatment of women sex workers, sex tourism and many other social engagements that he observes in Kenya. 

According to Soi, these are the issues that Kenyans do not like to talk about. “I work on all the themes that people don’t want discussed,” he explains. “Commercial sex work, intergenerational love affairs, corruption, lousy governance among many other topics that hinder the social, spiritual and economic growth of an African country.”

In a chat with Afro Art East Africa, Michael said, “through his work, he is making a visual diary of Kenya so that two or three decades from now young Kenyans can get a sense of the Nairobi of today.”

In response to this, Soi created a four series satirical painting titled, Shame in Venice (seen partially above), to protest against the maltreatment of Kenyan artists at this year’s Venice Biennale. “Shame in Venice was created around the circus that was the Kenyan pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It was me shouting from the top of my voice from a rooftop on the misrepresentation that was taking place in the Biennale. Kenya has excellent artists and a vibrant art scene. I just did not understand what the Chinese were doing in our pavilion,” he stated.

An ardent user of social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, most of Soi’s paintings are first posted on his social media pages where he’s gained a good number of followers over the past year. He believes media is an important platform for artists to share their art with the world, evident in the engagement he receives on these platforms:

“Social media is a great thing. It has made the world very small. It has opened up numerous opportunities to alternative audiences to the work done. Personally, it has created an alternative audience to my work that i share daily on Instagram and Facebook. Used properly it has a lot of benefit to people seeking to show work to a global audience.” 

More pictures from this serie Here.