Wanja Kimani is a visual artist and cultural strategist re-imagining how we inhabit the intersections of history, memory, and the land.

Working across the UK and East Africa, she partners with educational and cultural institutions to evolve their engagement with the past, engaging with community voices and incorporating digital tools to champion a transparent history that actively informs and shapes our future. Her practice serves as a bridge between diasporic narratives and institutional frameworks, creating spaces where equity and experimentation can thrive.

Visual Practice Her visual work interrogates the evolving relationship between the body and the land, reflecting on themes of connection and disconnection. Embracing a methodology grounded in experimentation and play, she works with natural dyes and found materials to unearth stories held within the landscape. Notable projects include representing Kenya at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and the film commission Tongues (2021) for the Women’s Art Collection, which explored the nuances of black girlhood and folklore.

Curatorial Practice As a curator, Wanja drives structural change by guiding institutions to embed care within their historical narratives. In 2025, she co-curated Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition at the Fitzwilliam Museum and co-edited the accompanying exhibition catalogue. Beyond exhibition-making, she contributes to critical discourse through book reviews and essays for artist monographs, envisioning new paths for cultural workers to navigate the complexities of institutional histories. She has delivered lectures for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Newcastle University, and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai.

Strategic Experience & Mentorship Since her participation in the Iniva youth advisory board in 2009, she has built a career defined by collaboration and experimentation. From 2013–15, she served as Arts Manager at the British Council Ethiopia, where she held regional oversight across all arts programming, including public art commissions and the rollout of poetry workshops across 50 primary schools. Her approach combines strategic oversight with a critical, supportive mentorship style, making her a trusted collaborator for artists, institutions and brands seeking to deliver projects of cultural value with depth, authenticity, and care.

An alumna of Independent Curators International and the British Art Network, she was awarded a Literature Matters Award by the Royal Society of Literature in 2023. She is currently pursuing a practice-led PhD in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London.