Child painters come of age

If anyone doubts the vibrancy and indomitable energy of the Nairobi visual arts scene, they should have been around last week when every day there was either an exhibition opening or an artist’s talk.

There were Ngecha artists at Village Market on Monday, ‘A narrow band of wavelengths’ at Sankara Hotel on Tuesday, Kenyan photographers at Circle Art Gallery on Wednesday, Polka Dot Gallery launch on Thursday, an artist’s talk by Peterson Kamwathi at One Off Gallery on Friday, a Pop-Up Art Exhibition at Dusit D2 Hotel Saturday and the weekend opening of Anne Mwiti’s ‘I Am’ solo exhibition at The Little Gallery.

Gallery opens

The only one I missed was the photography exhibition curated by James Muriuki at Circle Art, but as it’s a genre being favoured by a wide range of Kenyans. Meanwhile, one of the most exciting events of the week was the official opening by the British High Commissioner Nic Hailey of the Polka Dot Gallery in Karen.

Started by Lara Ray, the gifted young curator who comes from a long line of artists and art institution builders, including her artist mother, Sophie Walbeoffe, who has several paintings and prints in the show.

An exhibition that’s assembled the works of more than 30 Kenyans and mainly Kenya-based expatriates which hung side by side, it’s a marvellous mixture of mono-prints, oil and acrylic paintings, photographs, mixed media collage and beautifully shaped ceramic pots.

Among the Kenyans exhibiting were Jessica Atieno, Waithera Chege, Mary Collis, Waweru Gachuhi, Samuel Githui, Eric Gitonga, Patrick Kinuthia, Elias Mung’ora to name a few.

The expatriate artists exhibiting included Paul Taylor is one who stood out since he’ll be giving a talk on The History of Sculpture on October 18 followed by two painting and sculpting workshops the following day.

Dusit D2 exhibition

The other group exhibition that was special was the once-a-month Pop-Up show at Dusit D2 Hotel. It’s an event that is always full of surprises since one never knows whose work will be on display on the last Saturday of every month. The artists must get the green light first from the Google Kenya CEO Charles Murito (who initiated the Pop-Up shows), before they can show their work at The Dusit Den.

The Dusit pop-u shows are attracting a whole new generation of Kenyan art collectors. Either way, the collection is an eclectic mix of artwork by both well-established artists like Samuel Githui and Adrian Nduma and young rising stars like Aron Boruya, Mutuku Mwini, Samuel Njoroge, Evans Ngure, Clavers Odhiambo, David Mucai and Rob Karanja.
Adrian’s paintings are less priced than the one he sold over a year ago for more than Sh2 million.

Children’s corner

But an added feature of these monthly shows is the children’s corner, started by Patrick Mukabi to mentor aspiring youth in the art of painting. Now he’s also coaching children on weekends either at The Den or The Hub in Karen.
One of Mukabi’s most inspiring young artists is 12-year-old Zackaria Odhiambo, who’s been studying painting for the last five years. Zack’s multi-coloured ‘Lion’ was sophisticated.

Another child painter who sells his work at Dusit is Patrick Muture aged eight. Patrick’s ‘Sunset’ painting was selling for Sh1,000 and Zack’s ‘Lion’ was going for Sh4,000.

Anne Mwiti is another mentor to many local artists, only they’re mostly art students at Kenyatta University where she lectures in fine art. Her solo show at Little Gallery displays a new style of portraiture which is haunting, dark, and thickly layered to suggest inner depths of brooding thoughts and feelings.

At Sankara Hotel, it’s the stunning black and white woodcut prints of Thom Ogongo that visually dominate the exhibition, curated by Carol Lees of One Off Gallery. Beautiful sculptures by Baldy Osborne, Morris Foit and Charles Kamya complement Ogongo’s buxom women and Farrah Akbarali’s pen and ink drawings, but it’s Thom’s prints that have the broadest appeal as they seem most reflective of Nairobi day and night life.