Heritage Music Quintet premiered last Saturday at Dusit D2 Hotel with the Pop-UP exhibition
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru(posted March 26, 2018)
Stanley Cheche with his mixed media collage
Kenyan
corporate leaders need to take a page out of Charles Murito’s play book. The
Google Kenya CEO is a major supporter of contemporary Kenyan art and artists.
Murito’s
method of support is unprecedented. It began more than three years ago when he
invited a few local artists to come to his brand new unfurnished flat and bring
their best works to show to some of his influential Kenyan friends.
Artists like
Patrick Mukabi, Adrian Nduma, Patrick Kinuthia and several others showed up
that first Saturday as did a number of Murito’s art-loving friends.
Patrick Mukabi was one of the first artists to exhibit at Charles Murito's flat in Kilileshwa
The
chemistry clicked from the start and very soon, artists were clamoring to come
meet local art enthusiasts, many of whom were just discovering the wonders of
contemporary Kenyan art.
Patrick Mukabi was one of the first artists to exhibit at Charles Murito's flat in Kilileshwa
But what
made Murito’s model of support so unique was that while he was essentially
setting up a ‘Pop-Up’ exhibition space for young artists, he wasn’t asking a
penny or a percentage as a commission from any of them.
Soon enough
Murito needed to move into his new flat. But rather than bring his artistic
experiment to a halt, he enlisted the management of Dusit D2 Hotel and asked if
they’d provide a rent-free venue once a month for the artists. Dusit loved the
idea. And so, on the last Saturday of every month, artists flock to the D2.
Prospective
exhibitors were initially vetted by Murito, but he quickly handed over his de
facto curatorial powers to Adrian Nduma, (a former banker turned fulltime
artist).
“It isn’t I
who looks for the exhibitors,” Adrian told BD. “It is they who contact me and I
do the vetting although Charles has the final say.”
Initially,
Dusit opened up its ground floor conference hall to the artists, but they have
since moved up one floor.
“Our new
exhibition area is actually better since we have a more spacious arrangement,”
Adrian says, noting that normally between four and eight artists exhibit each
mouth. That was the case this past Saturday when works by Wallace Juma, the Manjano
2018 award-winning artist, were displayed alongside paintings by Samuel Githui,
Kathy Katuti, Waweru Gichuhi, Mark Kassi, Stanley Cheche and Sawe.
Every month
there are new faces; there are a few returning faces as well. In any case,
Adrian says he likes to have a good mix such as we saw last weekend.
There was
collage and acrylic by Juma, multimedia (include a shoe or two glued onto his
canvas) by Cheche, nudes by Waweru, portraiture by Sawe and semi-abstract
wildlife by Kassi.
In an
adjacent space, junk art Jewelry was on display by Evans Ngure and Faith
Waithaka. Photographer Eric Gitonga also comes to D2 both to take photos and
display his incredible insect art.
And just
beyond the jewelry, there’s an area for children’s art classes. Initially
started by Patrick Mukabi, they’re now run by several artists who Mukabi’s
mentored at Dust Depo Art Studio.
Finally,
Adrian’s latest innovation for the monthly Pop-Ups is live music. “I was
introduced to ‘Heritage Music’ by a friend, and after hearing them perform, I
introduced the idea of their playing at our Pop-Ups to Charles. He was open to
the plan,” says Adrian who invited BD Life to listen to these five young
musicians from Korogocho.
“We were all
trained at ‘Ghetto Classics’ [music school],” says Erick Ochieng who plays Alto
Saxophone next to his Tenor Sax player Joseph Omondi.
The others
in the group are Celine Akumu on clarinet, Peter Maina on guitar and Kevin
Obara on drums.
As the group
planned to play several sets that afternoon, visitors could simultaneously
listen to them play and also view the art on display. In both genres, the
artists were on hand to talk about their work and meet visitors. So just as
another musical set began, Ugandan artist Mark Kassi was explaining how his art
had evolved since the last time he exhibited in Nairobi at Village Market.
Heritage
Music’s sound is mellow soft jazz. Or at least last Saturday’s sound was like
that. But the group’s musical versatility and virtuosity was also clear so one
hopes they will come back to perform in months to come.
“Artists
contact us before every pop-up show. But as we aim to maintain high standards,
it isn’t everyone who asks that gets to exhibit at Dusit,” says Adrian.
At the same time, many young, up and coming artists like Katana Sanna and others have made their debuts in the Nairobi art world at the Dusit as part of the Pop-Up show.
At the same time, many young, up and coming artists like Katana Sanna and others have made their debuts in the Nairobi art world at the Dusit as part of the Pop-Up show.
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