It started as a friendship: two gallery owners, one based in Ghana and the other in Nairobi, who had been friends for years, decided to have a joint exhibition.
The resulting project was Notes on Friendship: Breaking Bread, a collaboration between the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) and the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Tamale (SCCA Tamale).
This exhibition marks the first instalment in the Notes on Friendship series. The second, to be held in Ghana, will be titled Notes on Friendship: Certified Comrades.
Featured artists include Agnes Waruguru, Beatrice Wanjiku, Daniel Arnan Quarshie, Dennis Muraguri, Eric Gyamfi, Florence Wangui, Galle Winston, Kofi Dawson, Gideon Asmah, Jojo Abdallah, Jonathan Fraser, Kevin Haizel, Leonard Kubaloe, Maame Adjoa Ohemeng, Maame Araba Opoku, Morris Foit, Ngugi Waweru, Priscillah Kennedy, Robin Riskin, Selasi Sosu, Sidney Mang’ong’o, Taabu Munyoki, and Wairimu Nduba.
Curated by Selom Kudjie from SCCA Tamale, the exhibition pays homage to narratives that explore the self. The artworks offer a poignant deep dive into nostalgia, curated through visual and installation art.
It is a collaboration that showcases the best of contemporary art from Kenya and Ghana, offering art lovers a rich, diverse experience of both countries as they move through the gallery.
One of the standout installations features a vinyl player and an old-school TV set, a powerful journey into the past. It stirs up memories of village life in the 1990s when radios and vinyl players were considered fancy gadgets.
The installation feels like a tumble through time, recognising bits and parts of inanimate objects that form core memories to both Kenyan and Ghanaian households.
The exhibition's theme takes a three-pronged approach: About Us, Nostalgia, and Objects. About Us explores the everyday experiences that shape our lives.
Nostalgia seeks to bring out emotions tied to times gone by. In Objects, the exhibition displays artefacts from daily life that remind us of places, routines, and instinctive interactions.
When Ghanaian artist Daniel Quarshie lost his parents, it was a gut-wrenching moment, and he poured his grief into a canvas using charcoal, resulting in a life-sized portrait of his parents on their wedding day, sharing a meal. It is a happy image shrouded in grief, a juxtaposition that elicits a wave of mixed emotions.
The painting serves as a direct inverse to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. Titled The First Supper, it is a masterwork of detail. Each figure in the frame feels immortalised by the artist’s talent and sorrow. It captures a beautiful moment, painted with the barest of tools: human grief, charcoal, and canvas.
Priscillah Kennedy’s velvet cut-outs with sequins and beads embroidered on Kente fabric are delicately sensual. Her entwined figures, rendered on this luxurious fabric, represent more than sensuality.
When her mother was sick, Priscillah mapped the routes she took to the hospital. These same routes are sewn into her canvas works. Her figures in partial transition, stitched over one another with seamless precision, suggest a body evolving through phases, a metaphor for both physical and emotional transformation. Her work draws us into a grey zone where we are invited to reflect on the layers of our sensuality.
There are a few familiar faces in the gallery. Dennis Muraguri’s Matatu Culture has become a signature representation of Nairobi’s public transport scene. While the loud and flashy Nganyas (customised minibuses) have stirred mixed reactions, Muraguri presents them as vibrant symbols of Nairobi’s urban identity.
Florence Wangui continues to build a stellar reputation as one of Kenya’s leading female visual artists. She captures her subjects’ emotions with near-lifelike precision.
Her simplicity, the implicit depth of her themes, and her masterful use of colour all come together in a compelling style and technique.
A Florence Wangui painting is not just seen, it is felt. Her balance between figuration and realism allows her to capture and express human psychology in a way that only colour and line can.
