Rosemary Karuga

Rosemary Karuga (born 1928) is a Kenyan visual artist. In 2017, she was named Artist of the Month by the National Museums of Kenya. She is known to be the first woman artist to have studied at Makerere University.

Early years and education

Karuga was born in 1928 in Meru, Kenya. She attended Makerere University in Kampala where she studied design, painting and sculpture. She currently lives in the United Kingdom.

Career

After completing her education at Makerere University in Kampala, she moved back to Kenya worked as a teacher.She retired from teaching in the 1980s to pursue arts professionally. In 1987, she became an Artist in Residence at the Paa ya Paa Arts Centre in Nairobi. She usually creates collage arts using the paper packaging from Rexona soap and Unga flour. In the 1990s she was commissioned to illustrate Amos Tutuola’s magical book, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Subsequently, her collage ‘illustrations’ were exhibited in Paris, London and in the Studio Museum in Harlem, USA.

Personal life

She got married in 1953 and has since given birth to three children and grand children.