Jeffy Magina with his Struggles of a Child. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
What you need to know:
He says he found better fulfilment in art than routine bookkeeping jobs.
Five years ago Jeffie Magina took a major risk and gave up a well-paid job as a certified public accountant (CPA) to follow what he felt was his ‘calling’ and became a full-time artist.
To the naked eye, it was a crazy move, especially as he already had a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Strathmore University and a CPA. He admits the job had afforded him a ‘comfort zone, ’ but he was bored stiff and wanted to break out.
It’s no wonder then, that his first one-man exhibition at the Little Gallery in Karen (opening January 31), pays attention to the theme of freedom.
His aim in quitting the CPA job was to now begin expressing himself free of the constraints that a nine-to-five job can impose. But the show, entitled ‘Childhood Nostagia?’ isn’t just about freedom and the innocence of youth.
The question marker in his show’s title suggests there’s something more going on in his art than just ‘nostalgia’.
The key to comprehending the question may lie in the tragedy that took place in Jeffie’s life as a ten year old. Both his parents died suddenly (in an accident), leaving him and his three older siblings bereft of the tight-knit family that they previously had.
Jeffie says he’s not clear how that tragedy affected him and how it served to shape the man he is today, but his art aims to explore that deeper, more complex issue.
“I don’t have an answer yet but I’m sure I’ll be exploring the question in my future artworks. For now I’m happy with this exhibition,” says the self-taught artist who started drawing as a little boy.
His journalist dad (one of my editors when I worked at the Kenya Times) used to bring home glossy, colourful magazines from work. These were what gave Jeffie his initial exposure to graphic design and to art.
“Those magazines are what first inspired me to start drawing,” he says. But one of his favourite sources of inspiration was the comic book character, Tin Tin.
Jeffie isn’t sure whether his early inspiration stopped once the magazines as well as his parents were gone, but clearly from the look of “childhood nostalgia”, his early years were full of fun and creative play.
Some of the sweetest works in the show are of a child playing ball or walking his bicycle or of two little boys with boxing gloves on getting set to imitate the boxers they saw on television.
Dream
But his paintings aren’t only about little boys. One of his most enchanting works is of a little girl dressed in white ruffles and balancing on her tip toes. She seems posed to dance like a ballerina, but there’s a far-away look in her eyes.
“That’s because she seems to know her dream will never come true,” he says rather fatalistically. Jeffie admits he may be wrong, that African girls might one day have a chance to become ballerinas. “I still have more investigations I want to make through my art,” he adds.
That open-endedness is reflected in another painting of a little girl who has tossed a pebble into a pool and is now watching the ripples in the pond which look like they will never stop.
So while there’s an undercurrent of sadness and scepticism in Jeffie’s first show, it’s the innocence and playful joy of childhood that one finally feels touched by in his art.
Meanwhile, Michael Joseph Centre put on a bad show last week after its management made promises to the 16 Kenyan artists whose “Essence” exhibition was initially booked to open January 21, complete with a cocktail reception. But that date was unceremoniously changed to the January 26.
Shifting sands
That was just the beginning of a series of stunning let downs that the MJ staff put the 16 artists through. First, the staff said the 16 could unofficially open on January 20; but when the artists came to hang their show, they found they’d been pushed out by at least two other events such that the dates of the exhibition became like shifting sands.
To me, the MJ Centre’s treatment of the artists is unforgivable. They were subsequently told they couldn’t complete the hanging of their show until Tuesday, January 26th, the same day as the cocktail.
“But that means our work will only be up one week [until February 5th] instead of the two we were first promised,” said the Essence artists’ chairman Nicholas Odhiambo.
‘Essence’ is an outstanding group show that I feel is a must-see.
