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Jak Katarikawe
Some call him “Africa’s Chagall”.

Others, “Matisse”.

But for Jak Katarikawe, that’s all moot.

The Ugandan-born, self taught painter can hardly read or write. He knows of Chagall and Matisse because art buyers visiting his Nairobi studio in the eighties kept mentioning these masters. So he told them, “this Shagaal, this Maatisa, they saw my paintings and painted like me.” When informed that, actually, both artists died around the time he, as a little boy, was chasing his father’s cattle up and down the verdant hills of Kigezi in south-western Uganda, Katarikawe countered, “We must (have) dream(ed) the same dreams then.”

The dream world is the ambrosia of Katarikawe, East Africa’s most successful painter and one of Africa’s finest, with a personal life as rich and fascinating as the soothing, mirthful images he’s poured onto paper, cardboard and canvas in forty years. Katarikawes hang in galleries, banks, hotels, embassies and private homes in Nairobi, Pretoria, Amsterdam, Geneva, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Tokyo...

In the seventies a Katarikawe went for $20 - $50. Now, it’s $8,000 - $200,0000. As some say, you never really own a Katarikawe. You buy it, enjoy it, and keep it safe for your children and grandchildren.

Solo Exhibitions

• 1966 Uganda Museum and National Theatre, Kampala
• 1969 Nommo Gallery, Kampala
• 1970 Nommo Gallery, Kampala
• 1974 Textile Craft School, Kampala
• 1975 The Commonwealth Institute, London
  Africa Heritage, Nairobi
  Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1977 French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 1980 French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 1982 French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 1990 Iwalewa Haus, Bayreuth
  Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
  Nairobi Safari Club, Nairobi
• 1991 MV, Frankfurt
• 1992 MV, Leipzig
• 1993 French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 1994 A First Retrospective, Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1998 Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1999 French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 2001 Galerie 37, Frankfurt
  Joint/Group Exhibitions
• 1967 Institute of Adult Education, Kampala
  New Stanley Hotel, Nairobi
• 1968 Kibo Gallery, Moshi
  Paa ya Paa Gallery, Nairobi
  Nommo Gallery, Kampala
• 1969 Union Carbide/Unesco, New York
• 1971 Travelling Exhibition, Switzerland and USA
• 1975 Africa Centre, London
  MV, Frankfurt
  Commonwealth Institute, London
• 1977 Second International Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, Lagos
• 1978 Berlin Arts Festival, Berlin
  Travelling Exhibition (Bremen, Stockholm, Erlangen,
  Amsterdam, Frankfurt)
• 1979 Ubersee Museum, Bremen
• 1980 Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam
  Liljevalch Konsthalle, Stockholm
  Buchmesse, Frankfurt
  Stadtische Galerie im Schlossgarten, Erlangen
• 1981 The Commonwealth Institute, London
• 1983 Gallery Watatu
  Linden Museum, Stuttgart
  Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart
  Visual Arts Exhibition/Kenya 20th Independence
  Anniversary, Nairobi
• 1984 East Africa Contemporary Art, The Commonwealth
  Institute, London
  Kulturamt, Hannover
  Katholische Akademie, Hamburg
  International Monetary Fund, Washington
• 1985 Kenya Freedom From Hunger, Sarit Centre, Nairobi
• 1987 Deutsche Stiftung fur Entwicklungslander, Feldafing
• 1989 Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1990 Technische Universiteit, Eindhoven
  Gallery Watatu, Nairobi (2x)
• 1991 Frauen der Welt, Koln
  French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
  Neue Kunst aus Afrika, Frankfurt
• 1992 Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1993 Entdeckungen, Ludwigshafen
  French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
  Kenya festival Arts Auction, Nairobi
  Goethe Institut. Nairobi
  Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen
  Africa Contemporary Art, Gallery Parco, Tokyo and Nagoya
  Gallery Watatu
• 1994 Pan African Congress, Kampala
  Group 94/Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
  Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 1995 Charity Art for National Spinal Injury Hospital, Stanley
  Hotel, Nairobi
  Das Neue Afrika, Kunsthalle,
  Frankfurt
  French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
• 1996 Kunsthaus am Schloss,
  Aschaffenburg
  Regierungsprasidium, Darmstadt
  GTZ, Eschorn
• 1997 Katarikawe and Kitengela Glass, Nairobi
  1998 Spirit Lives On, Paa ya Paa/Gallery
• Watatu/French Cultural Centre, Nairobi
  Katarikawe and Mbutha, Gallery
  Watatu, Nairobi
• 1999 Gallery Watatu, Nairobi
• 2000 Art Explosion, Village Market,
  Nairobi
  Galerie 37, Frankfurt
  Our World Year 2000, Mall
  Galleries, London; WTC,
  Stockholm; United Nations, NY.
• 2001 Galerie 37, Frankfurt (2x)
  Museum fur Volkerkunde,
  Hamburg
  Rahimtullah Museum of Modern
  Art, Nairobi
• 2006 Dak Art, Dakar, Senegal

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