Kenyan artists are continuing to make their mark on the international scene.

Eight of them feature in a London charity auction next month while two of those plus another artist are reaching out to gallery-goers in the US and Switzerland.

The auction is to take place at Bonham’s on the eve of the firm’s Africa Now sale of modern and contemporary African art, on May 20.

The works, which are being packed and flown to the UK this week, are by Peterson Kamwathi, Beatrice Wanjiku, Michael Soi, James Muriuki, Paul Onditi, Cyrus Kabiru, Anthony Okello, and Bertiers.

The photograph by Muriuki and the painting by Beatrice Wanjiku are particularly interesting.

Muriuki’s view of a construction site in the Parklands area of Nairobi speaks of gestation, of rebirth, and of an unknown future, for whatever is built will alter the dynamic of the neighbourhood; while Wanjiku’s painting — The Constant Yearning — with its three disparate figures, deals with the search for emotional peace against a matrix of dissatisfaction. Her three figures are those she sees within us all… on the left resignation to our fate, in the centre denial, and on the right anger at our plight.

Money raised from the sale will be given to the African Arts Trust, and will be spent on the arts in Kenya.

The charity sale was arranged by Danda Jaroljmek, former director of the Kuona Trust in Nairobi, and now a partner in the Circle Art Agency based in Nairobi’s Lavington area.

Of the eight, Kamwathi and Kabiru have both shown abroad recently: Kamwathi in Vienna, Austria and Kabiru in Santa Monica, USA.

The Kamwathi show was part of Vienna Art Week, and was of seven charcoal and pastel drawings collectively entitled Hymn for a Republic. They dealt with the structure of a republic, including aspects of security, justice and governance… continuing themes in Kamwathi’s work.

He is following that up with another exhibition, this time in the US at the prestigious Miami Frost Art Museum.

Running from June to September, it is part of a show shared with the Jamaican installation artist Ebony Patterson. Kamwathi will present a crowd scene some two metres high and no fewer than 15 metres long, called Vessels. It is of some 40 charcoal and pastel drawings of people slightly below life size, cut out and rearranged on the wall into a demonstration.

All the figures hold placards but have their backs to us, meaning that viewers by facing the same way inevitably tag on to the back of the crowd — and join the protest.

But what are they (we) protesting about? We cannot see the wording on the placards, suggesting these figures speak of all protests and reflect recent history with the Arab Spring, demonstrations at the Davos forum, and Kenya’s own recent General Election.

Cyrus Kabiru, meanwhile, has been delighting visitors to the Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica with a selection of his quirky C-Stunners eyewear.

While in Los Angeles, Kabiru received a TED fellowship and held workshops with emerging artists. His work has been featured in group shows in London, Paris, Turkey and Dubai.

It lies, we are told by his UK dealer Ed Cross, “on the boundaries of art, performance, fashion and design.”  Moreover these entertaining objects, by recycling trash, speak of “the power of creative transformation both within Africa and worldwide.”

Indeed so. New to the US, but well very known here.

And so to Montreux, in Switzerland, where the expat Kenyan Koi Zagorski (from Nakuru, married to a Russian) is showing a tightly conceived group of 24 paintings — acrylics and Chinese inks — at the En Beauregard Gallery. On for the rest of this month, and called Dance with Me, the pictures develop her theme of the triumph of the dancer’s body… effortless grace distilled through energy to overcome stress and pain.

Her metaphor, in fact, for society at large.

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