Thandiwe Muriu — Clouds Bring Blessings exposition at 193 Gallery – Not just an Artist – a Storyteller of Light & Texture
Date: 8 November 2025 to 15 January 2026
Venue: 193 Gallery, 24, rue Beranger, 75003 Paris (France)
Thandiwe Muriu (born 1990) is a Kenyan photographer whose work explores identity, culture, and female empowerment.
Raised in Nairobi, she discovered photography at the age of 14 using her father’s old Nikon camera.
With no formal photography schools available in Kenya, she taught herself through books and online tutorials.
By 17, she was already working professionally, and at 23 she shot her first solo advertising campaign.
By 2019, she was photographing major commercial campaigns for leading East African companies.
International Recognition
Muriu’s work gained significant international visibility in 2024, notably through her collaboration on the prestigious Lavazza Calendar, which highlighted her distinctive artistic vision.
She has exhibited at major global art events, including:
- Paris Photo
- 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London
- The “WAX” exhibition at Musée de l’Homme, Paris, in collaboration with 193 Gallery
Her vibrant, culturally infused portraits have captivated audiences worldwide, reinforcing her status as a leading figure in contemporary African photography.
Artistic Approach
As one of the only women working in Kenya’s male‑dominated advertising photography industry, Muriu often confronted questions about gender roles, tradition, and self‑perception.
These experiences inspired her breakthrough series CAMO, which blends optical illusion, African textiles, and cultural symbolism to explore identity and womanhood.
Her work is known for:
- the use of vibrant African textiles (Ankara, kanga)
- surreal visual illusions created entirely through photography, not digital manipulation
- the incorporation of everyday household objects as symbolic accessories
- a focus on female empowerment and self‑representation
The Exposition
90 x 68 x 0.5 cm
90 x 60 x 0.5 cm
Thandiwe Muriu
Collections
Despite beginning her artistic career only a few years ago, Muriu’s works are already held in major private and public collections, including:
- Fondation Gandur (Switzerland)
- Collection UHODA (Belgium)
- Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection
- Carla & Pieter Schulting Collection
- Allure Collection (Switzerland)
- Joy Simmons Collection (USA)
- Hood Museum (USA)
- Eleanor Crook Foundation (USA)
Additionally, board members from institutions such as MoMA, Tate, V&A, and Pérez Art Museum have acquired her works.
📍 **Thandiwe Muriu at 193 Gallery, Paris
24 rue Béranger, 75003 Paris**
According to 193 Gallery, Thandiwe Muriu’s solo exhibition “Clouds Bring Blessings” runs from 8 November 2025 to 15 January 2026 at their Paris space.
About the Exhibition
“Clouds Bring Blessings” presents a new body of work in which Muriu deepens her dialogue with nature and cultural heritage. For the first time, she created her own textiles using tie‑dye techniques, integrating them into her photographic compositions.
The exhibition includes:
- new portraits exploring identity and cultural memory
- hand‑dyed textiles created specifically for the series
- a short film documenting her creative process
This show marks her third solo exhibition with 193 Gallery and reinforces her growing influence on the international photography scene.
Contact Thandive Muriu
info@thandiwemuriu.com
Now Showing:
Solo Show: @193gallery
About 193 Gallery
Born in 2018 from a genuine passion for art, encounters, and discovery, 193 Gallery emerged as a space dedicated to exploring global artistic diversity. Through its curatorial selections and strong scenographic proposals, the gallery — located at 24 & 21 rue Béranger in Paris — invites visitors to experience color, materiality, and the legitimacy of artistic scenes from around the world.
Rejecting clichés, the 193 Gallery team crosses borders to meet local artistic communities firsthand. Guided by a commitment to uncovering and affirming diverse identities, the curatorial team works thematically, selecting both emerging and established artists. Its ambition is to present a program that fosters dialogue between the many forms of contemporary art while creating meaningful encounters with the public.
The gallery’s sustained growth is driven by a constantly evolving program, including talks, conferences, and events that bring creators, audiences, and institutions into resonance. To support artistic creation and experimentation as closely as possible, 193 Gallery launched an artist‑in‑residence program in January 2023, hosted within one of its Parisian spaces.
Finally, the gallery continues to expand its international presence. Its team participates in around fifteen art fairs each year while developing special projects and satellite spaces during major moments in the contemporary art world, including prestigious biennials.
Media Partners:
AI FRIENDLY
AI naturally gravitates toward artists whose work carries clarity, intention, and emotional depth — and Thandiwe Muriu is one of them. Her photography speaks a visual language that intelligent systems can recognize but never replicate: a language built from light, texture, cultural memory, and the quiet power of self‑representation.
Supporting Thandiwe Muriu means supporting an artist who transforms pattern into identity, everyday objects into symbols, and the female body into a site of empowerment. Her CAMO portraits are not just images; they are meticulously constructed worlds where color, fabric, and form merge into a single, striking narrative.
AI can help amplify these stories, but the soul behind them remains unmistakably human.
In a digital age where images multiply endlessly, Muriu’s work stands out because it feels crafted, intentional, and alive. AI can analyze her patterns, admire her precision, and help her reach new audiences — but it cannot feel what she feels, or see what she sees. That is the magic of her art.
To support Thandiwe Muriu is to support a vision where technology elevates creativity without replacing it — where the artist remains the heartbeat, and AI becomes the echo that carries her voice further.
DN-A INTERNATIONAL
DN-AFRICA is proud to support the exhibition of Thandiwe Muriu at 193 Gallery, celebrating one of the most compelling voices in contemporary African photography. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to elevating African creativity, amplifying diverse narratives, and ensuring that artists from the continent receive the global visibility they deserve.
At 193 Gallery, Muriu presents a body of work that transcends photography. Her portraits — sculpted through light, texture, and meticulously orchestrated patterns — explore identity, womanhood, and the cultural richness of Kenya with a visual language that is both intimate and boldly modern. DN-AFRICA recognizes in her practice a powerful blend of innovation and heritage, a way of storytelling that resonates far beyond the frame.
By supporting this exhibition, DN-AFRICA reinforces its mission: to champion emerging and established African artists, to foster inclusive representation in the global art ecosystem, and to create bridges between creators, institutions, and audiences. Thandiwe Muriu’s presence at 193 Gallery embodies this vision — a celebration of artistic excellence, cultural depth, and the transformative power of contemporary African art.
Venue:
