Great art offerings for the holidays

Zambian sculptor Thom Phiri’s solo exhibition entitled Freedom Expression was well worth making the trek out to Kuona Trust to see before his show closed and the artist went back to Lusaka.

Phiri was only in Kenya a couple of months, attending an artist’s residency programme at Kuona. But rather like the Eritrean artist Ermaes Ekube, Phiri’s gentle style of soulful stillness, and quiet way of listening and blending in made him an easy ‘stranger’ to quickly get acquainted with.

Evidence of Phiri’s ability to make new Kenyan friends is apparent throughout his exhibition. He received gifts from fellow artists like the marble and granite stones he was given by Kenyan sculptor Peter Oendo Kenyanya, all of which were used and redesigned into fascinating multi-media sculptures. One golden granite stone got reshaped and smoothed into gentle curves reminiscent of a beautiful young woman.

Phiri also collaborated with the Kenyan artist Gor Soudan to create two stunning sculptures. In one which he entitled Maasai, Phiri stacked two different shades of granite, then topped them with a slender icy white marble stone. Gor’s contribution to the piece looked a bit like a skirt made from Maasai shuka, hand-woven as it was out of used bicycle brake cables.

Best known for his sculptures shaped out of what he’s called ‘protest wire’, Gor (like Phiri) makes do with materials that are most accessible and the cable wires served his purpose.

The other sculpture the two artists worked on together was again a multi-media piece, only in this instance, Phiri worked in wood while Gor continued weaving with the cable wire. The combination of wood and wire was evocative, tempting the eye to initially see the weave as a beautiful bird’s nest. But looking again, one might see a king or queen’s silver-coated crown or even a dazzling water fountain spewing out sparkling drops into the air.

Clearly the two worked well together; but Phiri also got support, advice and even tools from many of the Kuona artists. Growing up in circumstances that could easily be described as ‘collaborative’, Phiri started learning to sculpt as a little boy, sitting at the feet of his father, a man who taught him everything from welding to bronze casting before he was 14.

Describing his father as his first and most important mentor, Phiri never had a formal fine art education. Nonetheless, he doesn’t describe himself as ‘self-taught.” Instead, he says he apprenticed with several outstanding Zambian sculptors, starting with his dad who showed him how to work with everything from scrap metal, fiberglass and bronze to found objects, wood and stone.

The one medium he hadn’t worked in before was glass, which is one reason he wanted to come to Kenya, to hopefully spend some time at Kitengela Glass. He got his wish once Kuona’s Sylvia Gichia got a green light for him from Kitengela’s founder Nani Croze.

Phiri spent several days learning from Nani and other glass artists at Kitengela. As a result, several of the most stunning pieces in the show came out of his ‘apprenticing’ in glass. Working with the same recycled glass that Nani normally does, Phiri created several miniature cobalt-blue pieces, the most interesting of which is set inside a concave-shaped slice of Kisii stone.

But Phiri’s versatility wasn’t only evident in his work with glass and granite, wood and Kisii stone. Just outside Kuona’s exhibition hall stand two man-sized sculptures, one made out of fiberglass and scrap metal, the other out of soldered and sliced metal.

Phiri said both works are meant to be women although each piece is semi-abstract, meaning one can interpret them in any way they like. However, one cares to see them, both are carefully crafted to convey a feeling of affirmation, dynamism and strength.

Phiri is likely to leave several of his sculptures in the safe keeping of Kuona Trust so if you didn’t get to his solo show, you can still see some of his best pieces scattered round the Kuona grounds.

Meanwhile, at the Italian Institute of Culture, the Sudanese artist Magdi Adam is having his first solo exhibition in Kenya.
Having arrived in Kenya via Addis Ababa, Kampala and Cairo a little more than six months ago, Magdi is clearly on a fast track. Basing himself at the GoDown Art Centre where he produced practically all the paintings at IIC, Magdi’s art will be on display until December 21st.

Finally, Recent Works by Kenyan artists will also be on show at One Off Gallery until just before Christmas.