WOMEN ARTISTS ASSEMBLED AT NEW KAREN GALLERY

 

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru

Fridah Ijai, Valsey Wangui, Victoria ‘Blaine’ Thuo, Chela Cherwon, Gemini Vaghela and Naitiemu Nyanjom.

These are just a few of the forty-seven women artists whose artworks were exhibiting the entire month of June upstairs at the Usanii Mashariki (U.M.) Gallery at The Waterfront Mall in Karen.

Shame on me for not having been there at the opening of the exhibition entitled ‘Breaking the Bias: Value our Differences’ on June 1^st. As I write, the show has ended. But this one had to be the biggest collection of artworks by Kenyan women ever assembled.

We have Gemini Vaghela to thank for that. She struggled first to find all of these women, many of whom initially had to be persuaded to come out into the open. Then she had to ensure that the quality of their work was strong enough to fit into a professional exhibition.

Not that many of the artists hadn’t exhibited before. Many had. “But I still had to ask one woman if she could recommend others, and then find out from those others if they knew even more women artists,” said Gemini who had been invited by Xhuuma Maseeti, who manages the UM Gallery, to curate an all-women’s show.

“I’ve managed the gallery from the beginning,” said Xhuuma, who initially started managing the gallery as a member of the Kenya National Visual Artists Association (KNVAA) in September of 2017.

“The Mall had been the one to approach KNVAA and ask us to host an art exhibition and establish a gallery,” Xhuuma continued. “But then the Association took it as a short-term thing and planned to shut down the gallery once the exhibition ended. But many artists wanted to continue with it. So, we have managed the gallery ever since,” he said.

“The Waterfront was also happy for us to stay on. They are essentially our Patron,” Xhuuma added.

What’s most remarkable about this show was not just the quantity of women artists represented in it. Most are young women in their 20s and 30s. Many are either students or recent graduates of art schools such as BIFA, Kenyatta University, and University of Nairobi. And a few, like Abigail, says she got her best art training right there in the Gallery which runs ‘interactive’ art classes every Saturday from 2 – 7pm.

“Our teachers are all volunteers,” says Xhuuma who observes that on weekends, there are as many as seven or eight volunteers who teach everything from painting and drawing to tie and dye, origami, and sculpture using papier mache.

 But apart from the numbers of women artists who’ve been able to show anywhere from one to five of their paintings or photographs. It’s also the quality of the work being shown that is impressive. One’s tempted to ask, where have all of these talented artists been hiding? Why haven’t we seen their artwork before?

Rather than question the past, it’s better to appreciate what’s been revealed at UM Gallery which is not only the fascinating diversity of subjects explored in the women’s art, everything from portraits and caricatures to surrealist and super-realist works to decorative and collage art.

What is also interesting is the way Xhuuma has decked out the space. He and his team as used tall sheets of criss-crossed metal wiring both to expand the space on which they could hang the art as well as to simplify the hanging itself. Then too, the moveable panels, standing upright within the huge hall they’ve been given by the Mall, are much lower than one usually sees.

“If you don’t like bending over to see the art that’s at the lower level of the panels, there will be a lot of the art that you might miss,” observed Betty Press, a professional photographer from US.

Personally, I liked the ability, thanks to the lower level of panels, to be able to see a wider range of artworks that had been hung thematically. Explaining the way the gallery is run democratically, in a non-elitist stye, Xhuuma says that artworks are not “segregated according to price range”, nor based on the background, profession, or notoriety of the artist.

“We see all artists as equal,” he adds. “And we are happy to connect artist and client since we don’t take commissions, although we do take donations, and we’re grateful if people want to donate art materials for the Saturday classes.

Throughout June, there have been other arts-related events happening at U.M., everything from spoken word poetry, live music and book launches like the June launch of MC Sharon’s ‘Alkebulanian in Alkebulan’.