The African woman inspires Mary Ogembo’s work. She depicts the beauty and daily activities of the woman, and overlooks the negative stereotype placed on the African woman. Her paintings are very rich with vibrant Earth colors, usually associated with Africa and the background pretty much relates to the subject and brings about the state of the environment. Her subject forms are exaggerated in some areas, which give the paintings a naive look.

Ogembo is a Kenyan born artist who has been working as a full time artist since 1998. The Artist is currently based at the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi. In 2005, she won commonwealth arts and craft award, which enabled her to work in Ghana as a resident artist based at the Kwame Nkrumah University of science and technology for a period of six months. Her work has been widely recognized and captured by local media in Kenya and other countries, including, the South African broadcasting corporation (SABC) Featuring Africa Within, CNN for Inside Africa 2011 amongst many others.

The National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, The Standard Chartered bank UK and Casoria museum in Naples Italy has collected her work. She has held exhibitions in various countries such as Kenya, France, USA, Egypt, Canada, Finland, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, India, Germany and Lithuania.