ZIHAN CURATES SOME OF NAIROBI'S BEST AT ORGANIC MARKET FOR KSPCA

KSPCA GETS BIG BOOST FROM LOCAL ART SHOW

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (published in BDLife 6 August 2021)

Ever since the Organic Farmers Market moved over to the grounds of the KSPCA, (Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals), the place has become much more than a food court where people can not only buy chemical-free fruits and vegetables, fresh flowers and cheese. It’s also more than an open-air market adjacent to grounds filled with rescued animals, all ripe for adoption.

OFM is a place where people come to relax and unwind with friends over cups of herbal tea, red wine, kumbucha, or honey beer.

It was the Market’s manager Dennis Andaye’s idea to try something new by inviting Zihan Kassam to curate an art exhibition cum fundraiser for KSCPC, an event that just opened this past Friday night with the artists and the animal lovers all present.

Zihan is best known for being an artist herself. But she has also been an art critic, consultant, and curator who’s organized shows everywhere from private homes to the Kempinski Hotel.

With that sort of experience, it was a breeze for her to assemble some of Nairobi’s well-established painters and sculptors to participate and donate a percentage of their art sales to the esteemed animal refuge.

“I invited artists who I’ve known either since I had my studio at Kuona Trust, or since I wrote about them for various publications, or showed their art in previous exhibitions that I’ve curated,” Zihan told BD Life just hours before the show’s opening.

Some of the works being shown under Zihan’s open-air canopy are not new. But that doesn’t diminish the value of early works like Paul Onditi’s adventurous alter-ego Smokey, Lemek Sompoika’s paper collage, Nadia Wamunya’s evocative nudes or even Dennis Muraguri’s matatu prints. Instead, one appreciates the way ‘Anima’ (Zihan’s title) has allowed a sculptor like Chelenge van Rampelberg to bring out her first and most treasured wood sculpture which hasn’t been seen outside her studio since the 1980s.

But there are lots of new works in the exhibition as well, including one specially commissioned for ‘Anima’, a concept Zihan associates with the interconnectedness of all living things. Michael Musyoka’s massive 20 feet by eight feet flower-filled mural is a warm and welcoming way to arrive at the showcase.

“It’s meant to be the centre piece of the show,” Zihan tells us proudly. But then, she is clearly pleased with the other new pieces in the exhibition by painters like Michael Soi, Shabu Mwangi, Boniface Maina, Onyis Martin, Wycliffe Opondo, and even the relative newcomer to the local art scene, the sculptor Chris Miruka.

It’s rare to see assembled such a strong selection of local artists, 14 of whom are Kenyans and one, Nimrod Hanai, a Nairobi-based Tanzanian. All are visual storytellers with none quite so serious as Shabu Mwangi whose ‘Life of a Boxer’ reminds us of the pain necessarily endured to achieve the heights of success. In contrast, Michael Soi presents three apolitical pieces, each one featuring his classic African beauty set in bright, idyllic scenes. Boni Maina’s avatar man looks like another adventurous alter-ego, enjoying life and inviting you to join him. Onyis Martin brings an abstract austerity to Anima with a densely darkened piece that keeps us wondering what’s going on in the dark? Meanwhile, Munene Kariuki presents one COVID-conscious masked man who’s being dutiful but dulled by the lockdown. Otherwise, Wycliffe Opondo’s style of sign-writing brings a welcomed sense of joy to this show, creating graphic jokes that most everyone can understand and enjoy.

Unlike many group shows seen around the town, Anima’s sculptures are among the most show-stopping pieces in the display. By far, it is Chris Miruka’s life-sized scrap-metal sculptures that engage public attention the most. Seeing his horse and buffalo, each dressed in a silver sheen and carefully crafted with anatomical precision is an attraction that gives Anima its manifest meaning. For in spite of Miruka’s art medium being metallic, his sculptures embody the ‘Anima’ theme of how interconnected are relations between man, animal, earth and the elements. (It’s no wonder both sculptures were the first works sold, with 70 percent of sales going to the artist and 30 percent to KSPCA.)

Meanwhile, Irene Wanjiru’s rugged stone and wooden sculptures share a similar ‘anima’ expression of interconnection. But she adds a further attraction in that she brings the show across the grounds to her Stone Soup Café where you can have a wholesome Kenyan meal while still enjoying her stone sculptures scattered all around the Cafe.

Anima is up at KSPCA through August.