There is a blurry line between genius and madness that Rasto Cyprian shows in his art. His artworks depict a man who loses himself in colours and the absurdity of the concepts in his paintings.
“Ephemerals”, his exhibition at Circle Art Gallery, feels like a walk through a mangrove forest in sepia. Vines and branches twist and turn from the undergrowth in the different colours reflecting Rasto's moods. The show is a collage of work that meditates on rejuvenation, decay, and the in between that recognises the vulnerability of these moments.
For young visual artists, gallery exhibitions are hard to come by. For others, not all are as successful. However, for Rasto, who is 24 years old, this is his second show in six months.
“I remember painting when I was as young as 13. I started art trying to show my peers what I could do; when they went for sports, I went for art. After high school, I went to university, where I majored in English Literature. But I find art much better than literature because literature is cold; it ends when the book is closed, but for art, it can be interpreted in so many ways and seen differently, which is its allure for me,” he says.
A Shore (2026), an acrylic on canvas piece by Rasto Cyprian at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
“Ephemerals” invites people to cherish, to love and to embrace. He says that his paintings show that time has an expiry date.
“My subjects are close to rivers, which are always flowing and full of life. The bottom part of the artworks shows decay, which replenishes life to the growing things through the channels,” he says, adding that he painted the artworks in a rush.
“I wanted the technique to come out more than the colours themselves; the colours are merely a combination of time and technique.”
He looks at art as a unique career.
“Art doesn’t work like a trade where you manufacture and sell immediately because it relies on trust and technique. If you work long enough, your technique will be cleaner, and someone will trust you with their money for a painting. I know of rich artists, and I also know of broke artists, but art has been my sole source of income,” says Rasto, whose works have been showcased in some of the most prestigious fairs in the world, including the Shanghai Art Fair and the AKKA Project in Venice, Italy.
An art enthusiast admires paintings at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
How much do his artworks fetch? His first painting, he earned him Sh6,000, while the most expensive he has sold was priced at Sh240,000.
“It was a good feeling that someone was willing to pay that kind of money for one of my paintings, but the price doesn’t affect how and why I paint. I know my numbers, and I understand the economics of art now, the prices don’t even register in my head when I am painting,” he says.
He believes that what sometimes drives creativity for artists is being broke.
“It is a privilege to work from the position of a starving artist; it is not nice to be there, but it is nice to work as a starving artist because this is the period in which you get to figure out so many things because you are putting in the work,” he says.
Connectors (2026), an acrylic on canvas piece by Rasto Cyprian at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 10, 2026.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
He attributes his growth to constantly painting.
“I have enough of a body of work to throw in another show, and so when galleries visit my studio, they feel like I am ready. I am a very fast painter, in a month, I can do between 15 and 30 pieces, but I don’t do this just because I can, it will only happen when I am asked to produce such.”
His most successful exhibition?
He speaks of his first solo exhibition at One Off Art Gallery in 2024. “I sold out everything, and so I was rich,” he says.
On why he has not had another show at the venue, he says, “It doesn’t work like that, I prefer being called to these spaces because it allows you to set the tempo, gives a pattern and helps in your leverage as a growing artist.
