Lexington artist and sculptor Kiptoo Tarus. Photo by Estill Robinson
As an artist living in his native Nairobi during the Kenyan crisis of 2007-2008, Kiptoo Tarus became obsessed with drawing hands – specifically, the innocent hands of those who had died from political violence in his country and community.
“What are the last things that they reached for to hold onto life?” Tarus said in an interview in his Kenwick home, where dozens of sculptures in various states of progress dapple his backyard studio.
Perhaps most known for his large-scale hand sculptures situated on Short Street during the 2015 Breeder’s Cup beautification of downtown Lexington, Tarus is quickly becoming a rising star in the regional visual arts scene. From a 2016 solo exhibition at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center to inclusion in group shows at Transylvania University and the Headley-Whitney Museum, Tarus’ wood sculptures – often carved with a chainsaw – are gaining a growing following.
Several of Tarus’ hand sculptures have been popping up around the Kenwick neighborhood, a phenomenon that started after Tarus created a large-scale set of praying hands in the front yard of a fellow Kenwick friend. Carved directly from a felled tree in the yard, the artist said the process of transforming the wood represented, on a deeper level, transformations of time, place and people.
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Perhaps best known locally for his wooden hand sculptures, Tarus’s subjects and media vary, often drawing inspiration from the nomadic life of his native Kenya. Photo by Estill Robinson
“Everyone in this neighborhood has seen these hands,” he said. “It’s a vibration.”
That vibration has led to more and more neighbors approaching Tarus for a commission of their own public yard sculpture.
“People have been coming to me and saying they would like would like one of the hand sculptures too – I tell them to go pick one,” Tarus said with a smile, nodding at the many sculptures inhabiting his backyard studio.
While Tarus is enjoying an explosion of interest in his work, it came after years of effort, a chance encounter and a dramatic “aha” moment that involved setting his work on fire.
When he was still an undergraduate student at the University of Nairobi for Design, the artist met University of Kentucky associate professor of sculpture Garry Bibbs, who paid a visit to his school during a trip to Kenya. While Tarus’ undergraduate degree is in painting and drawing, for his final show, he branched out into three-dimensional works, confounding his professors (University of Nairobi does not offer programs in sculpture), who connected him with Bibbs during his visit.
“I looked at [Bibbs’] website and thought ‘this is the direction of contemporary sculpture,’” said Tarus. “From that point, we talked and he gave me critiques. He asked me, ‘so when you graduate here, what are you going to do? What do you think about grad school?’”
Tarus hadn’t thought about graduate school, but Bibbs’ visit planted the seed, and for the next three years, Tarus applied to UK but was denied admission. In the meantime, he had taken a job as a brand manager for a bank in Nairobi, a gig he eventually quit to focus on his art.
Determined to experience a breakthrough in his sculptural work, Tarus turned to the guidance of a local mentor, a tribal art sculptor who gifted him with a chisel he still uses to this day.
“He gave me one chisel and said ‘go forth,’” says Tarus, who transformed his Kenyan home at the time into a full-scale art studio.
Working with tree roots left over from a construction site, the artist began building a new body of work. After a falling out with that mentor, who accused him of copying his work – an accusation Tarus vehemently denies – the young artist went home and, deeply frustrated and angry, lit his work on fire.
“When I left, almost immediately, it started raining and the rain put out the fire,” Tarus remembered. “Maybe three quarters had been consumed by the fire, but there were pieces that remained.
“I came back the following day and looked at the pieces – I picked up one and brushed it off, and I was looking at these pieces and they were communicating totally differently,” he continued. “I started building them back again, but every time I was building them, I was burning and torching them again, so it gave me a new style.”
Tarus’ gamble with this new process and style paid off – he was accepted to UK’s graduate program to study sculpture on his fourth try in 2012 and moved to Lexington soon after. Historically inspired by the nomadic, pastoral life of his ancestors, recently the artist has taken a special interest in his own spin on equine art. This new direction, which juxtaposes classical equine art with those tribal and pastoral influences of his native Kenya, includes both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, many of which will be on display in a solo exhibition at the Hunt Morgan House during Gallery Hop on July 21 and available to purchase during a silent auction during a fundraiser for Blue Grass Trust on July 22.
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Tarus has recently been pursuing an interest in equestrian-themed art, including this hand-carved clay sculpture of Man O’ War’s head, which will be featured in his upcoming exhibit at the Hunt-Morgan House in July. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Tarus has recently been pursuing an interest in equestrian-themed art, including this hand-carved clay sculpture of Man O’ War’s head, which will be featured in his upcoming exhibit at the Hunt-Morgan House in July. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Tarus has transformed his Kenwick backyard into a workshop that resembles a sculpture garden. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Tarus said he enjoys spending time year round in this metal hammock that he fashioned. “In the winter, I curl up here with a blanket,” he said. Photo by Estill Robinson
From a large hunk of clay arched in the shape of a horse’s head, to a wood sculpture of a small horse casually looking back at a human skull, to large sheets of tar roofing paper featuring colorful pastel sketches of horses, Tarus’ current experimentation in equine art spills throughout his backyard, where many of his works are from recycled or reclaimed materials.
“This piece [uses reclaimed] old wood from horse farms,” said Tarus, pointing at a large, intricate sculpture that has been pieced together like a puzzle. “I’m wanting to take it back again to where it originally was, to its initial meaning.”
With his own backyard and workspace resembling a sculpture garden, Tarus is particularly interested in creating public art, so his pieces – even the 2-D pastel pieces – are designed to be weathered and placed outdoors. Sometimes that means he has to work backward.
“It’s not just a matter of building and sculpting it, but also moving it,” Tarus said of the reclaimed wood sculpture. “I have to be able to take it apart and rebuild it on site, so in working on it I’m thinking backward.”
The artist says it is important for him to work on his art daily to keep the momentum of progress going.
“It’s not really defined, but every day I have to do something regardless of whatever I’ve been doing the whole day,” says Tarus. “Without that, it drives me insane. And when I don’t do something the first day, the second day, the third day, it will take another week – it might take a month or two months before I go back to working on it again, and that’s a risk for me.
“I came to discover that however useless or meaningless a thing you think you’re working on, it’s always built upon a process or a subject,” he continued. “How you think of it as stupid or not constructive, or you may be like ‘why am I even doing this’ – that’s when actually it comes and gets to be something more than what you even thought. It’s because you kept doing it.”
“Liminal Insights”: A Solo Exhibition by Kiptoo Tarus
Blue Grass Trust’s Hunt-Morgan House Garden, 201 N. Mill St. The exhibit will be open to the public with art for sale during Gallery Hop, July 21 (5-8 p.m.) and during the Blue Grass Trust’s ticketed fundraiser “Bourbon & Brews on Broadway,” July 22 (6-10 p.m.).
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Taurus also created the metal sign and bike rack sign for the local brewery Mirror Twin. Photo by Estill Robinson
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Taurus also created the metal sign and bike rack sign for the local brewery Mirror Twin. Photo by Estill Robinson