NEW ONLINE
ART GALLERY DEBUTS IN SAFFRON SPA
BY
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 8 may 2017)
Spanish
artist and architect Veronica Paradinas Duro understands that the best way to
promote Kenyan art and artists on a global platform is to get them online in an
attractive visual art gallery that can bring their best works to the attention
of international audiences.
Her
GravitArt Gallery is such an online art space. It’s one that Veronica, 32 has
been planning since late last year. But she’s been meeting up with local artists
ever since she first arrived in Kenya three years ago.
She’d been
invited by a team of European architects to come here and join them after they’d
seen the quality of her work online. She couldn’t resist accepting the
challenge and seeing what opportunities might open up to her in Nairobi.
Over the
last three years, she’s designed everything from private homes to public
offices. But as she’d done a double major at University of Madrid in both architecture
and fine art, she wasn’t fully satisfied doing architecture without being more
actively engaged in the local art scene.
“Through my
architectural work, I learned a lot about web design, so it seemed logical to
apply that skill in ways that could assist my artist friends who are Kenyans,”
said Veronica who launched her website late last week (April 27) with a pop-up
exhibition of 11 Kenyan and Kenya-based artists at the Saffron Spa.
“A spa may
not seem like an appropriate space to have an art exhibition,” said veronica who
had been an arrangement with Saffron’s management to keep last Friday evening
open just for her exhibition of artists’ works that are also the first 11 on
her website.
“Unfortunately,
there were a few [spa] clients who came for appointments that night,” she
added. But it all worked out well in the end since the spa itself is an elegant
venue that was beautifully well lit for an exhibition of paintings and
sculptures that were easily found all over the spa.
“One of my
Spanish friends is a chef so he created a creative culinary installation that
was also quite beautiful,” she added.
The 11
artists whose works are on still display and which will be until …. May… are
Abusharia Ahmed, El Tayeb, Dickson Kaloki, Justus Kyalo, Shabu Mwangi, Dennis
muraguri, Peter Elungat, etc.
Veronica
isn’t certain when or where she will have another pop up exhibition, but the
current one is filled with colorful, mainly abstract expressionistic paintings,
clearly a style that the curator admires.
An artist in
her own right, Veronica is quite versatile as she blends fine art into her
architectural work. Her most recent focus has been on etching in brilliant
colors
As for the
artists she has selected to highlight first, what makes her selection exceptional
is that most of them have produced fresh new work, coincidentally with their
online debut at Gravitart. The most stunning change one could see in artistic
style is with Fitsum who is best known from his striking and powerful faces. But
at the spa, he has gotten much more playful blending a glorious mix of bright cacophonic
colors. He still works around a human face within a brighter almost
carnival-like context.
What’s clear
about the first 11 artists is they are keen to open up their artwork to wider
realms of appreciation which is likely come forth. The assurance comes not just
from the quality of their own art but that of veronica’s web design which is
simple, clear, and comprehensive.
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