Group Show at Circle Art Gallery. | Image via the Gallery
Dates: March 2-22, 2021
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
About
In the gallery over the next 3 weeks we have a selection of new work from some of East Africa’s most experimental emerging and established artists. Come and visit the gallery for an overview of new paintings, sculpture and works on paper by the following artists;
Paul Onditi, Longinos Nagila, Miska Mohmmed, Florin Iki, Jonathan Solanke Gathaara Fraser, Maliza Kiasuwa, Donald Wasswa, Onyis Martin, Nadia Wamuya, Paul Njihia, Wanjohi Maina, Shabu Mwangi, Dennis Muraguri and Cyrus Kabiru.
Group Show at Circle Art Gallery. | Image via the Gallery
Dates: March 2-22, 2021
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
About
In the gallery over the next 3 weeks we have a selection of new work from some of East Africa’s most experimental emerging and established artists. Come and visit the gallery for an overview of new paintings, sculpture and works on paper by the following artists;
Paul Onditi, Longinos Nagila, Miska Mohmmed, Florin Iki, Jonathan Solanke Gathaara Fraser, Maliza Kiasuwa, Donald Wasswa, Onyis Martin, Nadia Wamuya, Paul Njihia, Wanjohi Maina, Shabu Mwangi, Dennis Muraguri and Cyrus Kabiru.
Dates: January 27 – February 17, 2021
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
About
The Source of our Seas will be Shabu’s first solo show since 2017 and his second with Circle. This exhibition combines recent paintings alongside a series of poems by the artist.
Shabu Mwangi has been a practising artist since 2003. This work traces an ongoing personal journey of striving to understand the balance between the two things that drive us, love and pain and how we react in different ways depending on which is dominant. Shabu Mwangi’s work has previously dealt with questions of collective suffering, and the effects that inequality, marginalization, and other forms of structural violence have on communities. In this new body of work, he has tuned his gaze inward, focusing on an examination of the self. He asks himself questions about how he sees the people around him, and his interactions with them.
“We are all connected to one another, and none of us is truly free from our collective struggles. I have a family, I have a clan, I have a tribe…”
In this work, Shabu considers these different stages or levels of connection. Because we are all interconnected, and because the work is drawn from the reality and rhythm of the world, he believes that people will, each in their own way, relate to the work.
Shabu lives and works in Mukuru slum where he established the Wajukuu Art Project in 2013 with a deep conviction that his work could highlight the lives of the disadvantaged minorities in his community. His last exhibition was The Stateless at Circle in 2017 and his work has been shown in the UK, France and Germany.
Dates: January 27 – February 17, 2021
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
About
The Source of our Seas will be Shabu’s first solo show since 2017 and his second with Circle. This exhibition combines recent paintings alongside a series of poems by the artist.
Shabu Mwangi has been a practising artist since 2003. This work traces an ongoing personal journey of striving to understand the balance between the two things that drive us, love and pain and how we react in different ways depending on which is dominant. Shabu Mwangi’s work has previously dealt with questions of collective suffering, and the effects that inequality, marginalization, and other forms of structural violence have on communities. In this new body of work, he has tuned his gaze inward, focusing on an examination of the self. He asks himself questions about how he sees the people around him, and his interactions with them.
“We are all connected to one another, and none of us is truly free from our collective struggles. I have a family, I have a clan, I have a tribe…”
In this work, Shabu considers these different stages or levels of connection. Because we are all interconnected, and because the work is drawn from the reality and rhythm of the world, he believes that people will, each in their own way, relate to the work.
Shabu lives and works in Mukuru slum where he established the Wajukuu Art Project in 2013 with a deep conviction that his work could highlight the lives of the disadvantaged minorities in his community. His last exhibition was The Stateless at Circle in 2017 and his work has been shown in the UK, France and Germany.
Dickens Otieno, White with Patches, 2020 | via the Gallery
Opens: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
Time: 4 pm
The exhibition runs until 22 December 2020.
About
We are over the moon to announce our final show of the year, the first ever solo by Dickens Otieno (Kenyan, b. 1979).
Known for his sculptural tapestries of woven aluminium and three-dimensional objects in the same medium, Dickens Otieno’s engagement with his chosen medium reflects his interest in the way colour, texture, pattern and iconography imbue ordinary objects with meaning and identity.
Growing up, Dickens watched his mother, a tailor, working, and those childhood encounters with fabric and pattern greatly informed his practice of weaving and use of material. Other sources of inspiration for his vibrant sculptural compositions include various modes of dress and uniform, his immediate physical surroundings, particularly the urban environment of Nairobi with objects piled high in markets, the constantly shifting skyline, and pockets of nature in the ever-growing concrete and steel maze of Nairobi.
Dickens has been practising for 15 years, and this show brings together 19 new works, his large woven wall hangings and free-standing garment sculptures. Some of the works in this show are much larger in scale than before, and display, not only Dickens’s technical prowess but also show the expanding material and visual vocabulary of his work.
Otieno has participated in numerous group exhibitions locally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: See Here, Old Neals Auction House, Nottingham, 2018; Africa/Africa, Total Arts Courtyard Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai, 2018; Young Guns, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, 2017; The Third Dimension, Circle Art Gallery, 2016; UNI-FORM MULTI-FORM, Roots Contemporary, Nairobi, 2016; Paint and Metal, National Museum in Nairobi, 2016. His recent residencies include the Tilleard Artist Residency in Lamu (2018), Kenya, and a 6-week fellowship in Italy at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2019). Otieno’s work has been exhibited at international art fairs in Cape Town, Lagos, and Paris, and he has an ever-growing base of local and international private and institutional collectors.
Dickens Otieno, White with Patches, 2020 | via the Gallery
Opens: Wednesday, 25 November 2020
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
Time: 4 pm
The exhibition runs until 22 December 2020.
About
We are over the moon to announce our final show of the year, the first ever solo by Dickens Otieno (Kenyan, b. 1979).
Known for his sculptural tapestries of woven aluminium and three-dimensional objects in the same medium, Dickens Otieno’s engagement with his chosen medium reflects his interest in the way colour, texture, pattern and iconography imbue ordinary objects with meaning and identity.
Growing up, Dickens watched his mother, a tailor, working, and those childhood encounters with fabric and pattern greatly informed his practice of weaving and use of material. Other sources of inspiration for his vibrant sculptural compositions include various modes of dress and uniform, his immediate physical surroundings, particularly the urban environment of Nairobi with objects piled high in markets, the constantly shifting skyline, and pockets of nature in the ever-growing concrete and steel maze of Nairobi.
Dickens has been practising for 15 years, and this show brings together 19 new works, his large woven wall hangings and free-standing garment sculptures. Some of the works in this show are much larger in scale than before, and display, not only Dickens’s technical prowess but also show the expanding material and visual vocabulary of his work.
Otieno has participated in numerous group exhibitions locally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include: See Here, Old Neals Auction House, Nottingham, 2018; Africa/Africa, Total Arts Courtyard Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai, 2018; Young Guns, Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi, 2017; The Third Dimension, Circle Art Gallery, 2016; UNI-FORM MULTI-FORM, Roots Contemporary, Nairobi, 2016; Paint and Metal, National Museum in Nairobi, 2016. His recent residencies include the Tilleard Artist Residency in Lamu (2018), Kenya, and a 6-week fellowship in Italy at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2019). Otieno’s work has been exhibited at international art fairs in Cape Town, Lagos, and Paris, and he has an ever-growing base of local and international private and institutional collectors.
Boniface Maina was born in Nanyuki. He lives and works in Nairobi where he earned his diploma in Art and Design from the YMCA National Training Institute in 2008. In 2013 he, along with David Thuku and Michel Musyoka founded the Brush Tu artists’ collective, a communal studio space. He has previously had solo exhibitions at The Art Space in Nairobi (Line of Inquiry, 2016) and the Nairobi Gallery (Transitions, 2017). He has participated in group exhibitions in Nairobi, Lagos, Dubai, and Venice. His work has also been exhibited at international art fairs; AKAA Paris, FNB Jo’burg Art Fair, and Art X Lagos, and World Art Dubai.
Maina works predominantly in painting and drawing. He is an observer of human action and emotion, and in his work, he investigates the inconsistencies and conflicts inherent in human interactions. In this new body of work, especially in the Odd Realities series, Maina reflects on the voluntary and involuntary changes to everyday life brought about by events of the past year. Maina’s characters find themselves in a suspended state, restricted, literally and metaphorically, in the ways they can move and act. In a parallel series, Maina paints himself in idyllic locations: lolling in a hammock behind a white veil; relaxing in front of a fire with a glass of whisky; or tweaking a transistor radio at the fictional Therema Inn, with a rich sunset in the background. In these works, he thinks of the places he’s been, and those he would like to go to.
This exhibition presents us with a story of watching, waiting and wishing.
Small Things to Consider Solo Exhibition by Agnes Waruguru. | Image via the Gallery.
Dates: September 10 – October 9, 2020
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
“I want the show to uplift the importance of paying attention to the things around you, valuing your perspective. In a way, this is about ritual. It was really about taking walks every day, collecting things, and making based on a place. I hope it does justice to the time I spent in Lamu letting chance lead the way, being present and mindful. It is considering small things, having faith.” – Agnes Waruguru
Small Things to Consider Solo Exhibition by Agnes Waruguru. | Image via the Gallery.
Dates: September 10 – October 9, 2020
Venue: Circle Art Gallery
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
“I want the show to uplift the importance of paying attention to the things around you, valuing your perspective. In a way, this is about ritual. It was really about taking walks every day, collecting things, and making based on a place. I hope it does justice to the time I spent in Lamu letting chance lead the way, being present and mindful. It is considering small things, having faith.” – Agnes Waruguru
ATLANTICO: ANGOLA AND SÃO TOMÉ & PRÍNCIPE CONTEMPORARY
Circle’s first exhibition for 2020 is a group show featuring 11 artists from Angola and one from São Tomé & Príncipe; a combination of established masters & emerging artists living in Angola and the diaspora. ATLANTICO presents a cross-section of the varied practices developing in contemporary art from this geographical region of Atlantic Africa.
All the works embrace fiction and non-fiction; incorporating personal, political, economic, cultural, and mythological themes.
The exhibition is curated by Dominick A. Maia Tanner, producer-curator and gallerist at ‘ELA-Espaço Luanda Arte’.
He is also the founder of ´Angola AIR´ the country´s first artist-in-residence programme for non-Angolans artists and collectors.
