SEVEN WOMEN EXPOSE ART IN THE TIME OF COVID

                                                              Leopard by Celeste de Vries at Village Market 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (April 25, 2021)

Seven accomplished women presented “Art in the time of COVID” for four days earlier this month at the Village Market.

Mounted on the top floor of the original Village, just next to the open-air carpark, seven sets of paintings hung in a cozy corner that looked like it had been perfectly designed to fit the best works of women who had all been enthused to extend the ‘women’s month’ mandate of March into April as well.

“I was quite keen to exhibit together with other women. But as I have only been in Kenya a year, the show took shape gradually as we made contact with like-minded ladies,” says Gillian Douglas, the chief instigator of the show.

                                                                                            Mary Ogembo

Gill initially made the suggestion of an exhibition to her fellow South African artist Celeste de Vries who in turn linked up with Milena Weichelt, a trained silversmith who’d studied painting with Kenyan artist Adrian Nduma and has been in several pre-COVID exhibitions since then.

“Everything snowballed from there,” recalls Milena who got in touch with Mary Ogembo who in turn called Nadia Wamunyu who just opened her own N.W. Art Gallery in South C, but was happy to join with other women artists.

Gill then connected with two more fine artists: Lisa Davis, an art teacher at her daughter’s school, and Kushweet Bharji whose art she had seen on Facebook courtesy of a family friend who also happened to be Kush’s brother.

                                                                                 Milena Weichelt's Octopus

Gill was also keen on broadening the significance of the exhibition, so she linked up with a group based in Londiani that works with women who have been especially hard time by the pandemic. Brighter Communities Invest in Women & Assist COVID-19-Affected Families will also be a beneficiary of this show.

“Each of us donated an artwork that was just auctioned by Brighter Communities,” says Celeste whose art sold well both at the auction and at Village Market.

“The online auction ran from April 9^th through 14^th, and Brighter took charge of running it since they felt they had a larger [fanbase] than we had,” says Gill who understood the auction had made over Sh300,000 which included sales of several more pieces donated by Lisa Davis.

                                                                                 Nadia Wamunyu's Lamu Donkey

“All the funds raised will go straight to the organization to assist the women of Londiani,” she adds.

The exhibition itself reflected a diversity of styles as might be expected since the women come from assorted backgrounds. There are three Kenyans, two South Africans and one American. Each one had her own distinctive approach to painting. For instance, both Gill and Mary pay most attention to portraiture of beautiful women. But while Mary highlights the feminist features of African women, including faces and masks, Gill paints expressive images of young mainly European women in the prime of their lives.

“The larger portraits were layered in oils as well as textiles, making them quite tactile,” says Gill. “I also wanted to pay tribute to both my mother and grandmother in these works. So I sketched on top of the oils with embroidery. You practically had to get up close to the work to see the stitching. But I wanted those works to reflect the essence of the beauty of their youth,” she adds.

                                                                                             Nadia Wamunyu

Kushweet also includes one portrait in her collection, but most of it is abstract, colorful and infused with an electrifying energy. Milena shares Kushweet’s love of color, but her focus is what one might describe as a semi-abstract wildlife style. She will take a portion of a zebra, octopus or bird, and concentrate, using vibrant colors, on the details of that part, be it an eye, arm, wing, snout, or beak.

Nadia is the youngest of the seven, but her passion for painting is manifest, especially in her Lamu pieces which reflect on the simple things about the island that give it its special appeal, be it the baobabs, the donkeys or the sandy beaches and turquoise blue skies.

Celeste also highlights the everyday features of life in Kenya. But it would seem that everything about her environment is a worthy subject to paint. That includes everything from Nairobi’s skyline and indigenous trees to the lounging cheetah whose majestic portrait greeted you as you walked into the women’s gallery.

And finally, Lisa Davis’s paper-cut ‘paintings’ are extraordinary for their filigreed refinement of design. She combines unusual shapes and precise technique to create works that are masterful as well as magical.