By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published January 15, 2021)
One Off Art Gallery
had extended its Christmas show through mid-January, so you can still go (by
appointment) and see one of the most colorful and eclectic exhibitions that Carol
Lees had curated in 2020.
The pandemic
hasn’t made life easy for art galleries, given the lockdowns and social
distancing protocols. Nonetheless, One Off was able to stay open and assemble a
dazzling array of works by artists for its post-Christmas show. It includes
works by everyone from Peter Ngugi, Michael Musyoka, Beatrice Wanjiku, and
Jackson Wanjau to David Thuku, Sophie Walbeoffe, Peterson Kamwathi, and Fitsum
Berhe among others.
It’s an
exhibition easily described as stunning, and not just because of the number of new
paintings on display. It’s also because of the fresh themes, colors, and designs
employed by the artists.
Take, for instance,
Peter Ngugi’s painting, ‘Small Book Clique’, with its backdrop design of five-liter
sized containers of popular cooking oil.
“Peter said that
one kind of cooking oil is the item most frequently bought at the local kiosk,
and paid for using a small book,” says Carol Lees speaking to Business Daily
moments before a torrential rainstorm hit the gallery.
Presumably,
it’s the kiosk owner mama, dressed in a bright multicolored kitenge dress who
is in the foreground of Ngugi’s painting. She stands next to two casually dressed men, while
all three have been drawn in nearly life-sized forms. And like virtually all
the characters in Ngugi’s community-based paintings, none have facial features,
only black silhouetted heads.
But the
blackened faces do not distract from the naturalistic gestures of the otherwise
colorful figures in Ngugi’s art.
Still, if
you don’t live in Nairobi’s suburbs, you might not know that the small book
serves as a sort of credit card and is popular among the local population.
Another
stunner of a piece in One Off’s post-Christmas show is one by Fitsum entitled ‘From
tapestries of our shared histories VIII’. He has several portraits in the
exhibition, both in the Loft and Stable gallery. But the one I found most
arresting was his portrait of a woman whose face was shaded in cheerful hues
and encircled by floral designs that Carol explained were replicas of those discovered
on ancient Chinese porcelain that had washed up on our Coastal shores over
time.
And like
Ngugi’s painting, one finds in Fitsum’s piece, the design elements are just as important
to the total impact of the painting as the figure (or figures) in the
foreground.
Human
figures are pervasive in much of the One-Off show. There are classic portraits
of Kenyans by Olivia Prendergast, so-called ‘Savage Beast’ men in Kamwathi’s
drawings, multiple running men in Musyoka’s latest interpretation of ‘Time’ as
a finite human constraint, and in sculptures by Jackson Wanjau and Bertiers
Mbatia.
Michael Musyoka with artworks from his 'Time' series at his Brush tu studio
Beatrice
Wanjiku takes a totally new look at the human form. Her latest oil paintings on
canvas depict internal organs and skeletal structures (like a rib cage) in
monochromatic hues. Still semi-abstract in design, Beatrice’s works depart from
her previous focus on blackened shapes. Now she experiments with much brighter
colors and less abstract forms. Nonetheless, one still feels the organs have a
deeper, more symbolic significance that runs within the inner features of the
works.
Sophie Walbeoffe’s
‘Lamu’ coastline takes us out of the realm of human conjecture and into bright
equatorial sunlight where the artist has spent time painting many facets of the
village and preparing an elegant book filled with glowing images of one of
Kenya’s most idyllic spots. Lamu is still a place where cars are forbidden, and
dhows and donkeys remain the most prevalent modes of public transport.
One painting
that sends an attractive yet sobering message is by David Thuku whose art has
been exploring the theme of consumerism and its impact on the individual for
some time. But unlike his previous visual commentaries on the topic, Thuku doesn’t
examine the impact on individuals. Rather, his ‘portrait’ is of a tattered
piece of packaging, symbolic of the end of an era. For the pandemic has
certainly constrained consumers’ ability to shop. What remains is the trash,
including tattered pieces of plastic packaging.
Don’t be
surprised that Thuku’s art has taken such a turn. He’s a keen observer of
social change; and like so many local artists, he has drawn inspiration from
the challenges we have encountered in this pandemic age.
