Lankenua version 2 : Victorian Maasai Portrait series Painting

Kimberley Gundle lives in London. She is known for her rich colour palette. Kimberley has always been drawn to people, her work is a social encounter. For the last decade, Gundle’s work has been inspired by the Maasai Tribes of East Africa, whom she encountered during a charity hike across the Great Rift in Valley in 2009. She was captivated by the brightness of their flowing cloth and ornate beadwork amidst the harsh aridity of the landscape. Over the years, Gundle returned many times to the area and stayed with remote tribal communities, making sketches and being present in the vibrancy of Maasai Culture. Gundle's drawings, paintings, ceramics and bronzes inspired by the Maasai have been exhibited globally, most notably at Collect Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery in London 2019, and at the Venice Biennale 2017, 2015 and 2013. Gundle returns a percentage form the sales generated by her work to the communities whom inspired her, thus enabling projects such as bringing fresh water to 5000 people in the Olosokwan community in Tanzania. In Gundle's recent work, she turns her lens back to London, her adopted home. Gundle sketches daily on the London Underground, likening these encounters to the fleeting moments of contact in the Social Media world we inhabit. From her daily sketches, Gundle Is hand-building a series of ceramic portraits. She is working toward an upcoming exhibition for a London Immersion.