By KARI MUTU

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John “Silver” Kimani is a master of woodcut printing, and shared his knowledge with British artist Clinton Kirkpatrick in 2012.

Since then the two have held joint exhibitions; in 2016, in Kirkpatrick’s home country of Northern Ireland, and now they are sharing a platform in Nairobi at an exhibition called Life and Other Fictions at the Nairobi National Museum.

The exhibition is showing large woodblock prints of Kimani’s well-known style of narrative painting.

Human and animal characters are depicted against several overlays of colour in Kimani’s fantastical creations and imagining the stories behind them.

Other pieces are smaller illustrations of wildlife. The figurative style is the same but the appeal is in the simplicity of the subject, like the portrait of an ostrich.

Kimani has exhibited around the world and has been described as “Africa’s Hieronymus Bosch” after the prominent Dutch painter of the 15th century renowned for his surreal hellscapes.

Kirkpatrick’s woodcut prints, which are smaller, are inspired by experiences while travelling in Kenya.

He collects ideas by sketching, taking photographs and interviewing people from different backgrounds.

Kirkpatrick’s illustrations are surreal and colourful, but they have simpler compositions and are depicted in bolder colours than Kimani’s.

At the exhibition, his paintings are hung close together but are all different, demonstrating the vast repertoire of stories he has gathered.

There are illustrations of a dead hyena, a giraffe’s tail, swollen feet and blue hands.

One print called Rabbit, Goat, Bird and Pig in a House is of four animals peering out of a four-paned window.

She is the Sun is an illustration of a dark, smiling sunset on a cheerful yellow background.

Dressed in Flowers is a black face decorated with brilliant flowers on a sky blue background.

A brown face with a gaping mouth is drinking from a big orange calabash in From a Calabash.

Life and Other Fictions is on until the end of July.