Meeting up with artists Beatrice Wanjiku and David Thuku at ARTLabAFrica in Nairobi.

African contemporary art is gaining serious traction in Europe – lots of galleries, exhibitions, and an art fair were scheduled to show work from African artists this fall in London, and another art fair in November in Paris. That is really exciting. However considering the fickleness of the Western contemporary art scene – it is like love affairs, they heat up and eventually cool off – it is of great importance for the long term that the focus be on developing African local contemporary art markets and here I mean artists, art spaces, galleries, collectors and obviously schools. South Africa has a vibrant art scene, West Africa is also very dynamic with two major events this October in Lagos ( Lagos Photo Festival and ArtxLAgos). East Africa has trailed behind markedly. However there are signs that this is changing.

At the Armory fair in New York City in March the focus was Africa and I was pleased to see an Ethiopian gallery, Addis Fine Art included as well as a Kenyan gallery, Circle Art Agency which showed a video by artist Ato Malinda, whose work I had noticed prior to the fair and found appealing.

She has just received the Smithsonian African Awards for 2016!

I started chatting with Danda Jaroljmek, head of Circle and we decided that I should stop by the next time I was in Nairobi and she would tell me about the exciting developments happening in the Nairobi art scene. That was welcomed news!

I remember how around nine years ago during my first visit to Joburg I had run into Simon Njami and he had commented on the lack of creative energy emanating from Nairobi. Not that there was no art being made there, but it stayed traditional.

However I had had an inkling that things were changing. Two years in a row now ARTLab Africa, a Kenyan art space had shown at 1: 54, in London and New York, works from several Kenyan artists who were doing interesting work. I had purchased a couple of works and was keen on meeting the artists. One of them, Beatrice Wanjiku, was painting such raw emotion in her canvases that I wanted to hear her talk about her artistic journey. I was planning my yearly bush walk in Kenya that was to take place during the summer so I scheduled to stay a few more days in Nairobi, something that I generally avoid doing. I would spend those days meeting with several artists, and talking at length with some core players who revealed the history and the current state of the art scene. My research was not all inclusive but it was a good start.

Road works!

Getting around Nairobi is not an easy feat as it is plagued by terrible traffic jams. Timing meetings and showing up on time is a challenge and finding the place is another one. Most of the art places and artists studios are not in downtown Nairobi but more on the edges of the city and don’t have street frontage.

Danda Jaroljimek of Circle Art was out of town for a couple days so my first visit was to the small cultural platform ARTLabAfrica run by Lavinia Calza. I had made arrangements to meet at the organization’s premises two artists: Beatrice Wanjiku and David Thuku. Tucked away in a small office in back of a one story building I found Nadine Hugg, Lavinia’s assistant waiting for me .

Beatrice Wanjiku soon walked in. A woman of medium height, her hair pulled back in a soft bun, her sunny disposition was soon apparent despite the disturbing content and imagery of her work as a painter. Very vivacious, quick to smile, verbally effusive and intense she spoke of her work during the next hour with beautiful honesty, conviction, and passion.

Beatrice’s work is visceral, uncompromising, deeply personal reflecting her challenges – loss of her single parent and the cultural costs of choosing, as a woman, to be an artist in Kenya – but also her courage. Finding her voice has been an arduous process and now that she has found it she is not concerned whether you like her work or not.

She manipulates her paint with an expert hand: it stretches, tears, pulls, hide, reveals, drips. The interview provided important insight into her personal story, her artistic methodology and commitment. To read the interview click to the link.

An hour into the interview David Thuku strolled in with few large sheets of thick paper under his arm and no folder to my amazement! A member of what they call there – the fourth generation of artists – David is a relative newcomer to the art scene. While earning a living painting theatre backdrops and murals he and two other artists founded the BrushTu art collective in the Buru-Buru neighborhood of East Nairobi, which offers residencies and also sells art. More recently he has been focusing much more on his own work and has completed a residency at Kuona Trust where he still keeps a studio. He is developing his own particular style, which has been very well received. .

His work is done on paper of varying colors which he at times paints (treats is his word for this) with color, cuts and tears deliberately according to a carefully thought out message that he wants to convey. Every intervention on the paper is purposeful and he sees it as part of a process of extracting, revealing, digging out what lies underneath what at first one sees. He speaks of his working process in physical terms but it is also a mental process whereby he gets to understand “things” better.

David cut-outs are comments on the social, cultural and political situation in Kenya. Being a naturally reserved person he poses questions more than answers them for now while calling on the viewer to contend with the issues at hand.

Thuku tutors young artists from the Kenya Empowerment Program, The Buru-Buru and Kenyatta Universities as well as teaching art students under the Langalanga Scholars Association project.

Exhausted and hungry after those two hours or more discussing their work, Nadine, Beatrice, David and I grabbed a bite around the corner at a restaurant in the local mall. By the way security is pretty tight and you get checked as well as your car before you can get into the mall.

David and I would go to Kuona Trust in the afternoon. There will be a post on Kuona and the workshop system that has prevailed in Nairobi followed by an interview with Danda Jaroljmek from Circle Art Agency where she talks about galleries in Narobi. In particular she speaks of the art auction she started in 2013. It makes for a good read so be on the look out  for both posts!