ADAM MASAVA AND COSTER OJWANG, A DYNAMIC DUO

Adam Masava and Coster Ojwang didn’t ask for an open-air exhibition at the ground floor entrance of Village Market. The two visual artists didn’t ask originally to set up their easels right next to the Saturday afternoon jazz trio that practically every visitor wants to see and listen to once they arrive at older end of the oldest Runda mall. But all that is what they got since the new exhibition hall that they’d been promised wasn’t finished until the following week. But it was good for these two busy painters who managed to attract quite a few red dot sales that first Saturday. “It turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” Masava told BDLife who was on hand to meet and greet prospective clients and curious passersby, many of whom wanted to know why Masava painted on mabati (rusty corregated iron sheets). “I want my paintings to reflect the positivity of the slums,” he said. “People associate slums with negative stereotypes, but I want them to understand that a lot of healthy, happy people live there,” he added. His works in this show are a series of portraits of working people, most of whom are in the business of transporting basic essentials like bread, milk, water, and gas. Their modes of transport range from mainly bicycles and trolleys to plain old-fashioned walking. He also pays attention to the mamas who are busy preparing meals in roadside kibanas (informal outdoor eateries) The former sign-writer who got his start as a visual artist painting thank you cards says he never went to art school. But he did meet the Sisters of Mercy who worked in the Mukuru slums teaching art and crafts to kids like himself. It was on the strength of that teaching that he’s been invited to exhibit his art everywhere from Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands to China, Taiwan, New York, and Zanzibar. “I’ll be traveling to Atlanta next week where I’ll be having an exhibition from next month,” he said, admitting that his challenge was finding time to create new works for his next show. But he’s confident there’s a time for everything, including looking after all the artists in the Mukuru Art Club that he started back in 2017 to mentor young artists. Having know Coster Ojwang from around the same time, the two have exhibited together occasionally. “It was adam who introduced me to Charles Murito and the monthly Dusit D2 group exhibitions,” Coster tells BDLife. Originally from Kisumu where he studied fine art at the Mwangaza Art Academy before coming to Nairobi, coster recalls that he met Masava around the same time that his artwork won an award at the Manjano competition. He’s been doing well ever since, having linked up with William Ndwiga of the Little Gallery so that now, he has his art in spaces like the I&M Bank and elsewhere, Coster’s art contrasts sharply with Masava in that he works traditionally in acrylics on canvas. And in this show, he focuses primarily on landscape painting. He also includes a series on Nairobi traffic but ironically, his car scenes reflect none of the anxiety and frustration that many drivers experience first-hand from having to cope with getting stuck in traffic. There’s a sweet feeling of calm in all of coster’s paintings. The only problem with having a show in which more than 50 works are on display at a go, is that we see a kind of repetition in the work that it can be disappointing for anyone wishing to be a unique, one-of-a-kind work of art. On the plus side of this scene is that Coster has kept many of his smaller pieces remarkably low. The works, however repetitive they might seem, are actually distinctly different. Granted the differences might be slight, a change of color coordination on the land, a difference in cloud formation, or the color shading of the blue sky. But either way, each piece is a lovely landscape, Coster having gotten sensitized to what his prospective client population might like to see. Coster came into the Nairobi art world with skills, expectations, passion, and energy aimed at becoming a professional painter as soon as possible. But he took his time to research and watch how the local art scene operates. Plus he, like Masava, has blessed with people who’ve come into their lives especially to help them progress. For Coster, artists who have helped him grow include Adrian Nduma and Patrick Kinuthia, two truly talented painters who have helped Coster get to where he is today,