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Art, hoopla, stalls, fun at the fair

Wednesday September 10 2014
TEAchics1

Small Face by Richard Kimathi. PHOTO | COURTESY

The market for East African art is increasing by the week — so roll up, roll up for all the fun of the fair. Following the success of last month’s inaugural biennale in Kampala, the spotlight turns to Nairobi where the capital’s first big art fair is planned.

It will be held in the exhibition hall of the Sarit Centre in the city’s Westlands suburb, from November 5 to 9, with thousands of works — paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures — ranging in price from Ksh3,000 ($35) to a ceiling of Ksh500,000 ($5,750).

Galleries and other organisations (museums, bookshops, suppliers of paints, pencils, canvas and paper, plus parastatals and so on) will rent stalls to present their art works and services. Up to 30 spaces are available.

Leading the charge for Kenya’s artists is the Kuona’s marketing team, headed by Lynnet Ngigi, who is projecting the fair as part of the country’s Art@50 celebrations. “The country’s golden jubilee lasts until December,” she said, “and we thought this would be an exciting and appropriate way for the arts to join the celebrations.”

Her team is aiming to highlight both emerging and established artists and, as she told me, “make contemporary art accessible to all.”

Ngigi and the Kuona’s director, photographer Sylvia Gichie, have floated a raft of other objectives too. They include: Promoting established and upcoming artists; highlighting the value of art within business, the media and society; and bringing together artists, government officials, private businesses, the media and NGOs. They hope to make the fair an annual event.

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This year’s inaugural edition — called somewhat prosaically Kenya Art Fair 2014 — will begin with a bang on what in the UK is Bonfire Night (November 5), with a gala opening limited to 200 guests, including artists, collectors, curators and sponsors (even members of the diplomatic corps) while the following day the public will be allowed in for the four-day festival proper.

The organisers are hoping to attract between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors a day, until the fair ends on the Sunday (November 9).

In addition to awards for the best cartoonist, best stall and other such hoopla, what strikes me as a useful series of talks will be given, admission free, with subjects ranging from finding affordable art to creative techniques. Each will be held in the adjoining seminar rooms and will last from one to two hours each.

Thus, according to the Kuona, visitors will find everything an artist needs (presumably materials as well as handy information and good contacts) under the one roof. And hopefully these visitors will become impressed, excited — and buy.

Big hitters whose works are already slated to show include Richard Kimathi, Beatrice Wanjiku, Shabu Mwangi, Florence Wangui and Peterson Kamwathi.

These are to include one of Kimathi’s astonishing Small Face series, in which the heads are cut out of canvas and laid onto another canvas, the eyelids and lips stiffened and standing proud of the surface, with the eyes and teeth painted on the background cloth. The hair is tightly twisted string. A painter who continues to surprise with his sheer inventiveness, the effect of these subtle modulations is both startling and sinister.

In spite of the excellence of the established artists who will be exhibited, what the art fair does not offer, alas, is a guarantee that this talent will extend to the beginners who will be shown.

The good news is that Kenya has a fine record in this regard.

Recent years have seen the continuing development of such exciting talents as Florence Wangui with her charcoals of chickens, Shabu Mwangi with his introspective insights (both artists are guaranteed places at the fair) and Gor Soudan who produced among other things the most revolutionary Crucifixion sculpture I have seen.

Shown at the Iroko Gallery in Nairobi and later at the National Museum, the Christ was a shadow cast by a wire sculpture onto the residual arms of a huge teak cross. Flair and imagination such as this can be channelled but not taught.

Happily the Kuona is doing its best to encourage the technical skills that underpin the realisation of most works of such bravado at its base off Likoni Road near State House, where it is continuing its series of practical workshops. This time, it is offering glass making with Tonney Mugo, creating prints with John Silver, and photography with Joe Lukhovi. Classes start this month and run through to October.

Meanwhile, Gichie is out looking for sponsors for the arts fair — or “partners” as they are called these days — who can run from “Gold” for Kdh1million ($11,500), Silver, and Bronze all the way down to Copper (for less than Ksh200,000 ($2,300). Different levels buy a range of opportunities for having company logos in the catalogues, on banners and other promotional material, VIP status, guest tickets, privileged access and other rights.

The whole thing has been well thought through — and it is to be hoped that these thoughts are rewarded by adding impetus to the region’s arts.

Frank Whalley runs Lenga Juu, a fine arts and media consultancy based in Nairobi.

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