Studio News

I hope everyone has been keeping well during these times. I admit I have been a bit neglectful with keeping up with the updates and the happenings in my studio. Hopefully something I can to remedy as I get back into the rhythm of things. I embraced the lockdown (which is nothing new seeing as an Artist most of our time in the studio is spent in isolation) I approach my studio work and dare I say life differently, Intentional, and more involved in everything and a bit experimental and open to new ideas and ways of working. 

One such project was, “The Tusk Lion Trail” A sculpture Trail curated by Chris Westbrook, that aims to highlight the ongoing threats to the survival of Lion population in Africa. The trail taking place simultaneously in London, Bristol, Edinburg, Sidney, New York City, Nairobi and Auckland. This project will be launched on world lion day which is on the 10th of August until 28th September. More information at https://www.tuskliontrail.com

A life-size sculpture of Panthera Leo

Work in progress

Samarra 

Scheduled for this month and more specifically 28th of August is my Solo Exhibition at OneOff gallery. And as is the norm introspective and interrogating encounters within our individual states. Can’t wait for you all to see the work.

Also scheduled but date to be announced is a group show at the Nairobi National Museum so stay tuned..

Losing My Religion

 Losing My Religion III (2020)

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 

160cm x 133cm

Catch A Fire

 

Restless in Rest V (2020)🔴

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 

160cm x133cm

Opening Thursday, January 28th (by appointment only) Montague Contemporary

“Catch a Fire” adopts the lens of individual experience to understand the intersectionality of the agent of change within society. Oscillating from self-examination of our social identity to challenging prescribed and untenable norms, each work is a rallying cry to re-examine our collective experience.

Ultimately, the exhibited work attempts to cement the ephemeral, to both identify and make concrete that palpable and transitory feeling of developing individuality amidst the context of shared struggle, when passionate optimism and collective sense of purpose overcomes collective dread. Each artist interrogates these interstices, with their own proposition for a way forward, whether tackling climate change, racial justice, economic inequity, or internal strife.

Happy 2021

 The Quintessence of Loneliness II (2020)

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas 

As I look back on 2020, the greatest lesson I learned is gratitude. The world is an eternal return, we are but passengers in it. Grateful to see a new sunrise as it peeks through the curtains of a new dawn.

Happy New Year!

Currently on view at one-off gallery. The exhibition opened 28 November and runs till 16 January 2021. 

The work examines our bodies in a space and a time of change. The forms are stripped to the bone, flesh and muscle exposed bloody contending with our ultimate and intimate nature, fragments of ourselves returning.

Restless in Rest I 2020 Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas🔴

Then And Now

 Time Loses No Time II (The Letter Series 2010)

Mixed Media on Canvas 30x30cm

The featured painting is part of the “Then and Now” Exhibition at the One off Gallery. 

Then and Now exhibits a range of paintings which are a small representation from The East African Visual Arts Trust (EAVAT) Collection currently held in perpetuity for the people of Kenya.  None of these works are available to purchase but have been paired each with a recent work from the same artist which is for sale.  Many of the works from the Collection were collected between 2000 and 2010; of particular interest is the comparison between the older works and the recent works by each artist. 

In the "letter series", I explored the old art of letter writing as being rendered obsolete by technology. I incorporated stamps, photos, film negatives, and actual letters penned by my father to my mother. The intimacy of the dialogue in the letters obscured with paint and text derived from poems. The letters in their intimacy a revelation of two distinct individuals seen and not just from the maternal or paternal perspective. 

“Times loses no time” represents “Then” and hangs alongside “Resume Your Flesh an Form X”(featured below) which represents “Now”. While the paintings are distinctly different, their context on the ideas of transition and the continuum of life are a theme I’m constantly exploring.

Resume Your Flesh and Form X (2020)

150cm x 100cm

MixedMediaOnCanvas 

Mother

October is a strange month for me. Saying this month stirs up emotions is an over simplification. No amount of elapsed time makes it easier. It’s the month we celebrate my sister’s birthday and we would have also celebrated my mother’s birthday too. Her birthday preceded my sister’s, mother’s birthday was on the 10th and my sister’s on the 11th. She died on the 8th, two days to her birthday. I no longer miss her as intensely as I used to. Saying this out loud feels like a betrayal of sorts and more often than not my mother appears in my dreams and not in any specific way just the usual; we’re about to go out, or we’re hanging out in the house. 

I never recall our conversations, just echoes of voices, the familiarity of her voice, her laughter, and feet moving from one part of the house to another. These dreams always end the same. I’d dream we’re going out on errands; you can hear feet hurrying outside, I always yelling, “I’m coming,” as I ran to the door. I turn to the sound of the latch, as the door locks behind me, only to see the car driving away. I run after it, never really catching up only to see the brake lights as it turns a corner and she’s gone.

I would wake with an ache gnawing ceaselessly at me. I’m reminded of her passing, and I begin to feel the familiar ache that reminds me of an old scab, one that irritates and itches as it heals. There’s no more pain only a reminder of the injury, I scratch away.....