Like the curate’s egg, state-backed Manjano is good in parts

There is a famous cartoon, drawn in the early 1900s, of a bishop and a curate eating their breakfast, which includes boiled eggs. Wavy lines rising from the top of the curate’s egg indicates that all is not well.

The bishop solicitously inquires of the curate, “And how is your egg, my boy?”

The curate, fearful of giving offence, replies brightly, “Oh, it’s good in parts, my lord.”

Which brings us to Manjano, this year’s edition of the Nairobi Province visual arts exhibition. It takes up two halls of the GoDown arts centre in the city’s Industrial Area.

Like the curate’s egg, it too is good in parts.

The parts that are good are pictures by a few of Kenya’s leading artists from the younger generation.

These include two large woodcuts (Amani and Minimum Reforms) by Peterson Kamwathi, from his acclaimed Bulls series; a shimmering landscape by Frederick Abuga; a couple of large canvases by Samuel Githui; a witty offering by Michael Soi of one of his Fat Cats (this one sat on the lavatory); plus a couple of broad tonal studies by Patrick Kinuthia — one of Soko Women, the other called Samburu Teen.

The sculptor Morris Foit shows a couple of his quirky Alice in Wonderland birds, as well.

Mixed reviews

Also, I was delighted to find some imaginative pictures by artists whose work I do not know.

These include two figurative paintings by one Harrison Chege both of which appear by the spontaneity of the poses to have been copied from photographs.

I liked the amusing paintings by Wycliffe Opondo (Buchari) and Kevin Irungu (Obama Kool Cuts) which owe a heavy debt to kiosk signs.

A few of the other exhibits show an enthusiasm that should always be welcomed.

All these pictures provide a much needed stiffening of the collective backbone.

Good too is the intention of the exhibition, which is — and I quote from the catalogue — to showcase “paintings, sculptures and mixed media by established and emerging visual artists based in Nairobi.”

And finally, some real good has come out of this mixed bag of the good, the bad and, alas, the ugly — a determination on the part of the GoDown management to organise a series of workshops in which established artists will pass on their skills to those currently less gifted.

For the parts with wavy lines rising from them include, regrettably, much of the art on show.

There were too many pictures out of the 113 exhibits with little glittery bits stuck to the canvas. They belong in craft fairs.

Others would have better suited to a village hall or an end of term school exhibition, with their leaden brushwork and ponderous political overtones.

Wavy lines rose too from the fact that so few of the province’s respected artists chose to submit work.

It is almost as though they feared what the end result would be… a self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.

Of course, it might not have been the artists’ fault. They might have been notified too late, or not had anything off the easel ready to show, or been away, or any number of things.

But surely with a little planning this could have been averted and a far better collective representation of the city’s vibrant art scene could have been mustered.

And while still discussing the wavy lines, I am only too aware of how misspellings end up in print, but the catalogue really should not have the words Nairobi, Province, Commission and Commissioner spelt incorrectly and in large type.

A final read-through would have suggested a level of professionalism I would have liked to have seen equalled on the walls.

Still, it’s early days and I sense a number of lessons have been learnt … the need to include many more of the province’s finest artists being one, and a stringent selection process being another.
If the lessons are taken to heart, next year’s show should be a cracker!

Frank Whalley runs Lenga Juu, a fine arts and media consultancy based in Nairobi. Email: fwhalley@gmail.com