Two contrasting views of town and country

Evans Kangethe and Antony Mega, two Kenyan artists who seem to have little in common, one wonders why Red Hill Gallery curator-owner Hellmuth Rossler-Musch chose to fill his whole gallery with works by these two contrasting characters.

“They both work with black ink on white paper,” Hellmuth tells BD Life, clearly pleased with his choice of putting the two artists’ paintings together. He liked the clashing contrasts, the visual cacophony of one, clashing with the contemplative intensity of the other.

“They are also two different generations since Evans is 60 while Mega is 30, half his age,” Helmuth notes, one being a veteran to the Kenyan art world while the other a newcomer. Both are so-called ‘self-taught’ although both found artistic mentors after they realized visual art was the way they wanted to go career-wise.

Kangethe, being from Ngeche, grew up artistically surrounded by a whole range of early Kenyan artists, from Sane Wadu and Wanyu Brush to Sebastian Kiarie and King Dodge.

Meanwhile, Mega got his start at Brush tu Artists Collective after he’d attended BIFA, the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art. Both have exhibited at Red Hill before, Evans several years back when he was experimenting with ‘Smoke Art’ while more recently, Mega has contributed works to two group exhibitions at the gallery.

Even the title of their exhibition is two-pronged. “It’s actually got two titles,” Hellmuth tells me. “Evans’s is ‘A Sea of People’ while Mega’s is ‘Natural Mystic’.” So, there isn’t even a single title to convey something that unites them.

“The link between them is the black ink on white paper,” he adds. But even the way they use that black ink is contrasting.

One unifying factor that could make a case for a Mega-Kangethe combo in a single show is the passion that is reflected in both of their artworks. One could claim that both are ‘environmentalists’ in the sense that they both are deeply influenced by the space they have chosen to observe in their art. Both are effectively ‘plein air’ painters (artists who paint outside in the open air). Yet even in this regard, they do things differently.

Kangethe sits in the city centre, and simply observes for hours the comings and goings of busy Nairobians. He records his impressions on the spot with sketches of what he sees. After that, he takes those sketches home and uses them to produce his cityscapes.

These are several spaces layered and assembled in a format of visual vignettes, each reflective of Nairobi’s city life some years back.

For instance, before newspapers went online, men in town used to get a copy of one paper, either a Nation or Standard. Then they’d all read the paper together and discuss local politics with passionate fervor. That practice is long gone, but it’s good that Kangethe recorded it and other urban rituals before they were totally lost.

One can almost hear the cacophony of matatu touts shouting and drivers honking and people, vigorously gossiping about local politicians whom they may or may not like.

In contrast, Mega is a forest-dweller, someone who will find spaces in Karura Forest or the Arboretum or anywhere he can be alone with nature.

“Mega doesn’t make sketches, only mental notes that he takes home to create imaginative impressions of what he’s felt,” Hellmuth adds. It’s a more contemplative, internal reconstruction of feelings.

The thing about Mega’s work is that once you look at it, you’ll have no choice but to sit and contemplate what’s going on. Hellmuth described it as surrealist; I feel it’s more impressionistic.

Again, there’s a big difference in the way each artist uses black ink. Where Kangethe draws outlines in fine point pens, he also paints in more sweeping stokes, with brushes as well as pens.

Mega also seems to use two different pens, one black, the other a subtle grey which he uses to create shading and shadows. And where Kangethe creates sketches, Mega makes tiny, meticulous doodle-like circles that must take him hours to create.

His intense process produces intriguing, abstract images. Those hours generate drawings that contain shapely spheres suggestive of flora that is deeply embedded in soulful caves of consciousness from which emerge the artist’s inspired perspective on nature.

Ultimately, the two reflect two very different facets of a multifaceted city that originally arose from nature (Nairobi emerged from a swamp) up to now when people are building skyward for lack of the space that both artists are passionate about.

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