Untold Stories

Untold Stories continues Evans Mbugua’s long-standing exploration of identity and memory through portraits drawn from his immediate circle. Emerging from the series Back to the Future (2018–2024), created around his niece and nephews, the project revealed gaps and silences within his own family history, particularly surrounding his parents’ childhoods. Confronted with scarce archives and the loss of his father, Mbugua turned to fragments (stories, photographs, and memories) gradually gathering testimony, especially through intimate conversations with his mother.

A decisive encounter in 2024 with a 104-year-old woman connected to his paternal grandparents opened a rare window onto a family past stretching from the precolonial era to independence. This research expanded through historical texts and archives, while acknowledging that parts of the story remain irretrievably absent.

Untold Stories unfolds as a chronological frieze in which everyday family moments intersect with national history, extending personal memory into a transgenerational narrative. The meeting of his parents in 1970 forms its central axis, explored through distinct material languages: reverse glass painting reinterpreted in PMMA on the maternal side, and fragmented, stained-glass–like compositions on the paternal side.

Part of a broader effort to recover silenced voices, Untold Stories creates space for memories long withheld, allowing them to surface within both artistic and collective consciousness.