BY
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 4 June 2019)
Titles
attached to exhibitions of events can be informative or ill-advised. For
instance, the exhibition currently at Banana Hill Art Gallery by Nigerian
artist Adeshina Ademola is appropriate. ‘Beyond Borders’ makes sense as a lead
into a show filled with works by a man who’s defied regional boundaries and
come all the way from Lagos just to share his art with art lovers in Nairobi.
Adeshina's Symbols of Authority
On the other
hand, an exhibition entitled ‘Then and Now’ which is just down the road at
Village Market makes one wonder. ‘Then’ refers to past tense, the implication
being that two of the four Kenyan artists on show are ‘past tense’ or old news.
But from the
look of the works by Alan Githuka and Wanyu Brush, the two senior artists in
the show, there’s nothing ‘has-been’ or outdated about the art of these two
venerable artists, both of whom harken from Ngecha village in Kiambu county.
Alan Githuka's Mother Nature
Indeed, in
the 1980s, Ngecha was seen as a major fount of creative expression from which
came a vast array of local talents. It featured everyone from Sane Wadu,
Sebastian Kiarie, King Dodge Kang’oroti and Chain Muhandi as well as Githuka,
Brush and many others. The late Ruth Shaffner had even planned to build an art
centre in Ngecha in order to nurture that talent. But somehow it was waylaid
and another Centre got established at the National Museum which became Kuona
Trust.
Ngecha
artists like Brush were disillusioned by that turn of events, especially as Ms.
Schaffner died soon after Kuona was formed, based on a blueprint from the
Watatu Foundation. So it is heartening to see a show featuring these two Ngecha
giants.
Githuka’s
landscapes can never fail to please the eyes with his beautiful blend of
red-soiled rolling hills and sun-lit azure blue skies, several of which are
featured in the VM show. His cityscapes were among the first of many others to
reveal Kenya’s perennial problem of overcrowding with his portraits of slum
houses stacked in multicolored rows looking tightly packed but tidy all the
same.
Wanyu Brush's People at Work
Brush is one
of Kenya’s first semi-abstract artists. It’s a style he has retained in works
like ‘Let’s Rejoice’ and ‘People at work’, pieces that are also part of the
Village Market show.
For sure,
Githuka and Brush come from an earlier era and generation than Clavers Odhiambo
and Richard Kuria. But all four them ought to be seen as operating in the
‘now’. All are present tense. In fact, Kuria has been around a bit longer than
Clavers, but they both are playing active roles in Kenya’s art scene currently.
Both men
paint portraits of Kenyans although Kuria’s repertoire, which invariably
includes chunks of black vinyl disks, (what used to be called ‘45’ records)
also has an inclination comparable to what many genius matatu artists once had,
which is to paint international celebrities, particularly soul, reggae and hip
hop artistes, like Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley.
Richard Kuria's Lafayette Afro
Clavers, on
the other hand, has already become something of a star in his own right. His
hyper-realistic style captures audiences’ attention with immediacy. They
normally have to ask: is it a photography or a painting? It’s a fair question
since his art takes a literal approach to representation. Be his subjects young
or old, fat or thin, he manages to represent every imperfection, smile line,
wrinkle or pensive gaze, mastering skin hues, receding hair lines and any other
quirky point.
Clavers Odhiambo's Echoes 1
There are
some critics who question the value of hyper-realism, or super-realism, which
they will say can be easily replaced with a photograph, an item some say they
normally ‘plagiarize’. But then when the art form has reached the level of
being deemed an international art movement, one would rather ask, why isn’t
Clavers Odhiambo already included among the rest? For his attention to detail,
perspective and focus are extraordinary. His subjects literally seem to come
alive on his canvas as his art suggests he has a shared intimacy with them.
In contrast,
the subjects of Adeshina Ademola’s paintings feel more mechanized and
geometric. His most interesting works (for me) are his abstract jigsaw puzzle
paintings, including ‘Symbols of Authority’ and ‘Sayings of the Elders’.
However, his ‘One Commandment’ feels almost like a stained- glass window
illumined with rich crimson, gold, green and turquoise light. Take a trip up to
Banana Hill and see for yourself.
Richard Kuria's Vinyl on board
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