Montague Contemporary is proud to present Song of Lawino, the New York debut of a powerful and deeply personal body of work by Kenyan artist Elias Mung’ora. Originally exhibited at Indiana State University’s Yang Family Gallery, Song of Lawino marks Mung’ora’s first institutional solo exhibition and has been critically recognized for its rigorous, emotionally layered exploration of colonial legacy, identity, and cultural inheritance.
Borrowing its title from Okot p’Bitek’s seminal 1966 poem, Song of Lawino reflects on the introduction of Christianity and Western education into East Africa through missionary efforts, and the enduring cultural tensions these efforts produced. Mung’ora’s work weaves together archival documents from the Tumutumu Scottish Mission, intimate family photographs, and evocative textual fragments from p’Bitek’s poem, crafting a visual tapestry that is both historical and deeply autobiographical.
Much of the work was developed during Mung’ora’s participation in UJUZI, an alternative learning platform for East African artists established by the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) in partnership with Untethered Magic. Through this program, Mung’ora was encouraged to mine personal narratives and historical archives to critically reframe inherited ideologies and aesthetic vocabularies.
Raised in a Presbyterian family in Nyeri, Kenya—where the Presbyterian Church of East Africa traces its roots to the East Africa Scottish Mission—Mung’ora’s practice confronts the complexities of growing up within a belief system shaped by colonial influence. His paintings are quiet but unflinching meditations on belonging, rupture, and transformation, asking what it means to carry forward the legacy of both indigenous and imposed cultural frameworks.
“Song of Lawino is my way of reckoning with the forces that shaped not just my country, but my own upbringing—what we inherited, what we absorbed, and what we can reclaim.”
— Elias Mung’ora
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elias Mung’ora (b. 1992, Nyeri, Kenya) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice draws on archival research, personal memory, and cultural history to examine the ongoing legacies of colonialism in East Africa. His work spans painting, photography, and collage, often incorporating historical documents, family photographs, and literary texts to explore the tensions between indigenous identity and inherited Western structures.
Mung’ora has exhibited internationally, with recent solo and group presentations at Montague Contemporary, New York; the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute; Afriart Gallery, Kampala; AKKA Project, Venice; and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York. He is a member of the Brush Tu artists’ collective and a past participant in UJUZI, the alternative learning program founded by NCAI and Untethered Magic.
His work has been featured in The New York Times, Artnet, Contemporary And (C&), and The Nation, and is held in public and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (promised), and the New Orleans Museum of Art (promised). He lives and works in Nairobi.
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