Kenya’s vibrant art scene grows with opening of more shows

The Kenyan art scene gets more vibrant and varied by the day as several shows opened this past week.

There was one at the Kenya National Museum last Monday (Remains, Waste and Metonymy), another the following day at the Michael Joseph Centre (called Essence and featuring 16 local artists presenting original portraits), with two more coming up tomorrow, one showing works by Ngene Mwaura at One Off Gallery, the other at the Dusit D2 Hotel featuring eight artists and another on Sunday at the Little Gallery in Karen where Jeffie Magina will be having his first one-man show.

Then next week on Thursday, there’s another solo exhibition of Longinos Nagila’s paintings at The Art Space with the following Saturday featuring a stunning photographic exhibition by Mia Collis also at the National Museum.

Plus there are several ongoing shows to see. There are Ethiopian artists at Circle Art Gallery, a Ugandan at Banana Hill Gallery and Kenyan painter Sam Githinji Ashante at Red Hill Gallery.

New works of art

What’s more, if one simply stops by studios like those at the GoDown, Kuona Trust, the Dust Depo, Bonzo Gallery, the Railway Museum Art Studio, Maasai Mbili or Paa ya Paa, you’re bound to find countless Kenyan creatives devising new works of art.

So my weekend will be full. One Off Gallery always has exceptional shows and Black Angels Red Wings is especially intriguing since Mwaura’s been living abroad for years.

But the newest gallery space in town is The Den at Dusit D2, thanks to an agreement between the Google Kenya Country Manager Charles Murito and Dusit’s general manager Michael Metaxas to open The Den to a select group of artists every last Saturday of the month.

This month, meaning tomorrow, the eight exhibiting artists brought together by Mr Murito are Michael Soi, Boniface Maina, Waweru Gichuhi, MaryAnn Muthoni, Dixon Kaloki, Elias Mung’ori, Rob Karanja and Eric Gitonga.

It’s an eclectic group reflecting Murito’s open-minded approach to contemporary Kenyan art. There’s no charge to attend and one can bring children to paint with established artists like Patrick Mukabi among others.