A very merry Christmas to you all — and if you live in Nairobi, the chances are that you have joined the Great Annual Migration and are reading my greetings at the Coast.

So as you tuck into the Swahili fare and enjoy a madafu, you will not be surprised to learn that the art world, knowing where its customers might be, has moved with you to offer a wide range of work to see beside the seaside.

At the South Coast, the newly opened Diani Beach Art Gallery has just held its first Christmas party for artists and collectors.

Rock painting

I loved the invitation — a witty take on an ancient rock painting, with Santa appearing top right in his sledge.

It is so good that I have pinched it for this page, as my Christmas card to you.

The party was used as a platform to introduce artists from the Njovu Studio collective in Uganda — seven painters known for their colourful pictures of wildlife, village scenes and, in one case, very symmetrical abstracts.

In addition, work by favourites including Mary Collis, Peter Githui, Larissa Hoops, Peterson Kamwathi and Justus Kyalo, is there to enjoy.

Art, like nature, abhors a vacuum, so in a year that has seen galleries close — hopefully only temporarily — other places have rushed in to fill the space.

They include restaurants, shopping centres, collectors’ gardens, even a furniture showroom... and now hotels.

Over on the North Coast, five hotels (OK, to be strictly accurate, four plus one former hotel) are helping to expand the coastal art scene beyond the usual run of souvenirs and crafts to offer a more contemporary slew of paintings and sculptures.

Two exhibitions take the eye.

The first is at Lamu in the Tandala Art Space at Shela, within Kisiwani House, formerly the Island Hotel.

Called Sura ya Kwanza (The First Chapter) it was curated by Gonda Geets, who produced a major exhibition of Kenyan art at the new gallery in Safaricom House, Nairobi.

With more than a dozen sculptures and 40 pictures to see in three galleries, highlights include mahogany carvings of discarded clothing by Mosoti Kepha.

They speak of the ambiguity of clothes designed to conceal yet proclaim allegiances and therefore also reveal... particularly appropriate to the island.

Peterson Kamwathi’s ink studies for his new series of queue drawings are hung there, as are several oils by Fitsum Behre and paintings by John Kamicha incorporating khangas.

Michael Soi is showing his sculptures based on Mijikenda vigango — commemorative posts — deeply relevant to the Coastal traditions.

Also on show are paintings by Beatrice Wanjiku from her Immortality series; a lifetime’s memories distilled from photographs, flowers and x-rays.

From a former hotel at Shela to four working hotels just down the Coast at Malindi, which are together showing more than 150 pictures in an exhibition curated by William Ndwiga of the Little Art Gallery.

The four are all part of the Plan Hotels group, associated with the businessman and art lover Carlo Cipolini who has huge, well, plans, for art in this region.

He wants to put on an annual ‘Spherique’ international arts exhibition rotating around the Indian Ocean with Dubai as its hub.

Countries included are Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Create momentum

The 2012 show is slated to open in Maldives and close in Dubai while future exhibitions are planned to open in Nairobi before touring the ocean circuit and closing in the Gulf.

This current Malindi show — scheduled to open on Boxing Day and run for four months — is intended to create momentum for the Spherique.

The main exhibition is at Coconut Beach with satellite shows at Tropical Village, Malindi Beach and the Dream of Africa resorts.

Featured artists include the Kenyans Peter Elungat, Cartoon Joseph, Sebastian Kiarie, Peter Ngugi, Mary Ogembo (with a series based on African hairstyles), and Erick Shitawa, plus two Sudanese painters, Yassir Ali and Salah Ammar.

So, plenty to see at the Coast — and enjoy the migration. Warnings about crocodiles lying in wait would be tasteless and, no doubt, unnecessary.

Frank Whalley runs Lenga Juu, a fine arts and media consultancy based in Nairobi. Email: [email protected]