HILLARY MAYAKA
A contemporary portraitist and abstractionist whose work navigates the threshold between the seen and the felt — where identity dissolves into colour, and silence becomes form.
Born from
Silence
I grew up in western part of Kenya with a natural talent fine art and design — a childhood split between the ochre light of rural western life and modern restraint of urbanisation. The duality never left. It lives in every canvas: warmth held in tension with distance, intimacy pressed against every work.
After decades of independent self practice in different fields I developed a language that refused easy categorisation. The work is neither purely figurative nor fully abstract — it occupies the charged space between recognition and dissolution.
Portraiture, abstraction, realism and general design became the primary vehicle not out of convention but out of obsession. What a person hides is more revealing than what they show. i paints the hiding.
20yrs +
Years of Practice
200+
Works Completed
3
Continents Exhibited
“I am not painting what I see. I am painting what I cannot stop feeling.”
— HILLARYMayakaThe Four
Pillars
Every decision in the studio — medium, subject, scale, colour — is a philosophical position. These are the convictions that shape the work.
Acrylics and Cold Wax
The fast-drying nature of acrylics demands decisiveness. Cold wax adds translucency — layers accumulate like memory, each one visible beneath the next. Nothing is truly covered; everything is archaeology.
The Concealed Face
Every portrait begins with a conversation about what the subject refuses to show. That refusal becomes the painting.
Warm Restraint
A palette of ochres, burnt siennas, and near-blacks. Colour is never decorative — it carries emotional temperature.
Monumental Intimacy
Large canvases force the viewer into a physical relationship with the work. You cannot stand back and remain detached. The scale is an ethical choice.
Milestones
2010
First Solo Exhibition
Galeria Nómada, Lisbon — 18 works, sold out in three days.
012013
Berlin Residency
Künstlerhaus Bethanien. A pivotal two-year period that introduced cold wax into the practice.
022015
Saatchi Gallery Feature
Selected for New Sensations, London. International recognition follows.
032017
Nairobi Studio
Relocated to Bushwick. Scale increases dramatically — canvases reach 3 × 4 metres.
042019
Museum Acquisition
Three works enter the permanent collection of the Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon.
052022
Monograph Published
"ARTE: Layers of Concealment" — 240 pages, published by Hatje Cantz.
062025
Ongoing Practice
Currently working on a new series exploring grief and inherited memory.
07Interested in the work?
Collector inquiries, exhibition loans, and studio visits welcome.