Art Exhibits: Recent Sculptures by Alex Wainaina, Aug. 5-Sept. 6 2012 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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Dates: August 5- September 6, 2012
Venue: Le Rustique Restaurant

About
Alex Wainana is a self taught artist and has been doing sculptures for the last 12yrs. Hooked up in art by Gallery Watatu former manager Ruth Schaffer, she encouraged him when she saw one of his first small metal sculpture. It was his turning point and since then, he has been growing into one of the best junk metal sculptor in the region.

With a touch of humor, Alex manages to blend elements of African culture and environment. Alex uses only recycled material found at junk yards, he breathes life into recycled metal in a most creative way.
His work mostly depicts color earth ranging from animal heads, fishes, insects and sometimes Jesus Christ!

Exhibition: Matatu Project by Dennis Muraguri, Jan. 13-Feb. 22 2012 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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Born in 1980, Muraguri has a Diploma in Painting and History of Art (Graduating top of Class) from Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts, Nairobi. This collection of wood cuts is his first solo show in Kenya.

Matatus are a constant sight in Kenya and an icon of all its cities and towns. As well as being the main mode of transport, they also provide ‘street theatre’ especially when running from the police and at the same time as competing for customers!

There is also a creative side to the matatus . This involves “souping up” or upgrading the bus to attract more customers using heavy decorative paintwor k, stickers and labels derived from current local and international brands mostly in the entertainment industry, loud music and plasma screens. These kind of matatus are called “manyangas” and are most notorious for wreckless driving and overcharging.

“As an artist, I have been wanting for some time to do a body of work on the matatus: they are exciting to watch, especially the drama that surrounds them, the fact that they feed a lot more people than those directly involved through extortion and bribes, their relationship in our society shows how they have evolved to beat the law, is all fertile creative territory for me.”

Exhibition: Jan Van Esch, Oct. 7-Nov. 10 2011 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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Opening: October 7, 2011
Time: 6-9pm

Exhibition Dates: October 8-Nov. 10, 2011
Venue: Le Rustique Restaurant
Location: General Mathenge Drive Westlands
Tel: 0721 842 231

“One day a leaf came into my life. It fell off a tree in my garden. And I liked the leaf. Dry as it was, it was still full of form.  Strange to start to like a leaf, and even stranger to feel I was betraying it when another one was found. But it liked being drawn and I liked drawing it, over and over again as if creating my own mantra. That became the start of this series; leftovers from trees – leafs, branches, flowers – are portrayed on existing patterns. Similar patterns on different surfaces do become different things. I gave myself the task to work with dictated surfaces to see how similar patterns became combinations, or not. In the end a white background became a deliberate choice, making a white background a pattern by itself. Ideas, hand movement, memories, preferences and limitations are always there, because a blank slate doesn’t exist.“

Exhibition: Paul Onditi, Sept. 9-Oct. 6 2011 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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Dates: September 9-October 6, 2011
Venue: Le Rustique Restaurant
Location: General Mathenge Drive, Westlands
Contacts: 0721 842 231/3753081

Paul Onditi was born and grew up in Kenya but left after college for Germany where he joined the Offenbach University of Arts. He sees his ways of expression as a combination of African nature and a European acquired knowledge in Arts.

His paintings take us to strange places. They would almost look scary, but in fact, an odd quietness hangs over them, a kind of dead calm that disturbs and attracts. For a long time, he has sought a way to express the human condition and its inherent conflict, deeply affected by the tragedy of the soul in the Christian tradition.

His use of black and white refers to good and evil, the confrontation between light and dark, our inner conflict: “That is the reason I paint and sculpt. I do that to capture moments and happenings in my own life, my own self”.

Uncertainty is at the core of his practice, the loss of control is an integral part of his work, his mental maelstrom does not have any grip on the rational, are we in a dream or in the lab of a crazy alchemist trying to alter our mind with his hallucinogenic vision ? These dreams are like fantasies; these nightmarish visions show that painting can still be mysterious in Kenya.

Photo Exhibition: The View from Manda, Aug. 2-31 2011 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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A photo exhibition by Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann

Opening Date: August 2, 2011
Time: 6.30pm
Dates: August 2-31, 2011
Venue: Le Rustique Restaurant

The images on exhibition were taken in July 2010 at The Sundance Institute’s first ever East African Theatre Lab on Manda, in Lamu, Kenya

In April 2011, this series was exhibited in New York at MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary Africa Diasporan Arts)

This exhibition will be introduced by Roberta Levitow of the Sundance Institute.

A reading by Sitawa Namwalie (of Cut off My Tongue and HomeComing) will follow of THE Black Maria. This piece was conceived at the Sundance Theatre Lab

Exhibition: Women? Jun. 18-Jul. 19 2011 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

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Dates: June 18-July 19, 2011
Venue: Le Rustique Restaurant
Location: General Mathenge Drive, Westlands
Contacts: 0721 842 231 | 3753081

Works by: Kavita Sagar, Sidney Mangongo and Thom Ogonga

Sidney MANGONGO
Born in 1983, Sidney lives with his mother in Kibera (Nairobi) and has over the last months shown a growing interest in painting, collage, and a practice based on founded images. Patiently, he spends hours flipping through magazines and cutting images that resonate in his psyche. It is a playful practice of combining images and texts that become meaningful once put together. What others see as lost material, he sees as found material which becomes his interest with this question in mind: who has access to information and how does it influence our perception of women in our society?
This is his first time to exhibit work.

Kavita SAGAR
Kavita is based in Nairobi since 2009. She is inspired by the rich and colorful cultural past and present from her region Rajasthan. Her paintings for this exhibition capture the moods of the ocean and she relates this to the upheavals of life. At times calm and peaceful, this series of paintings capture the painful, powerful and unpredictable position of the woman in her society and the way she is perceived. Her paintings are abound with distorted human figures.
She has a Master’s Degree in Drawing & Painting from Mohan Lal Sukhadia University Udaipur in 2004, and is currently doing a research in paintings for her PHD in post modernism and contemporary Art of Rajasthan.

Thom OGONGA
Born, raised, schooled and working in Nairobi, Thom is a self-taught artist whose specialty is in painting, printmaking & has recently ventured into experimental photography.
He is inspired by fashion, music, and urban lifestyles and is even more fascinated by the controversial city nightlife. All the activities that color the night excite the artist in him and feature prominently as the core theme of his work.
He has exhibited widely and featured in various public art projects, workshops & residencies both locally and abroad.