With living museums, private galleries and art classes, this is the year to discover the country's creative safari rather than the Big Five
By Abigail Flanagan
"Does African art matter? It does internationally – but does it matter to Africans? Should it? That was the question I asked myself," Peter Achayo explained earnestly.
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I’d been in the wilderness, tracking wild dogs. Now I was on the hunt for Nairobi's thriving arts scene, having an existential debate with Peter, my guide, in the back of a slow-moving taxi. At this moment, he was explaining what led him to leave a successful marketing career and follow his passion, becoming a Contemporary African art promoter and documenter.
"We've hundreds of exciting artists in Nairobi alone," he continued. "Many exhibit overseas, where their collectors are: but they're not well known here. I'm on a mission to change that."
My own Art Experience had been curated by Peter and fashion designer Anna Trzebinski, at whose hybrid hotel I was staying. Part bijou bolthole, part living museum-cum-private gallery, part cultural salon (yes, really), Eden Nairobi was once the Trzebinski family home.
During the pandemic, Anna transformed the four-acre Langata property, adding bedrooms (now nine), and an ostrich-egg embellished restaurant and bar overlooking a wild-swimming lake. Still, the Cypress-clad Main House – built in the early 1990s by Anna and her late husband, the revered Kenyan-born artist Tonio Trzebinski – remains Eden's heart.
A Brobdingnagian cabinet of curiosities, Eden bursts with Anna's lovingly curated treasures: wooden headrests, Samburu snuff boxes, a bead-encrusted chair…and Tonio's art. Murdered in 2001 during a suspected carjacking, his work dominates: from tortured figurative oil-on-canvas works, to charcoal sketches of baboons. A testament to Trzebinski talent, the remaining gaps are filled mainly with pieces by the couple's two children: sculptor Stanislaw and ceramicist Lana.
Conceived as more than simply somewhere to top and tail a safari, Eden is all about connection. Hence its signature art tours.
"I'm passionate about art's value as an expression of our times," Anna explained. "Kenya's an extraordinary country with a unique voice. It's exploding with talent; I felt travellers would also like to see this side. Art is a universal language, and I've many artist friends, so I want to foster dialogue and share talent as much as possible."
Suffice to say, Anna and Peter's connections unlock doors. My first stop was figurative painter Nedia Were's studio, where large canvases – some unfinished, one an experimental play on Rubens' 'The Three Graces' – lined the warehouse walls. Paint-splattered, softly spoken and smiling as if he still can’t believe he paints for a living, Nedia took me animatedly through his work as he prepared for his first London show at FRIEZE (showing at No9 Cork Street until November 26; frieze.com; nediawere.com).
"My inspiration comes from people," he told me. "I'm fascinated by human form, human emotions and identity politics."
Reacting to the notion of beauty as defined by others – and the issue of darker-skinned women bleaching their skin to fit that "standard" – Nedia defies artistic convention and uses black paint straight from the tube for his portraits.
"Total black is not supposed to be used," He said. "I put just a small grey to bring the element of light. Colourism can mess with you badly. I want to empower you, so you appreciate who you are."
Unlike the UK, Kenya has no major art galleries. But things are changing. 2020 saw the opening of Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (ncai254.com), a non-profit exhibition space founded by Kenyan-British artist Michael Armitage (designer of 2023’s new £1 coin). Meanwhile, two permanent homes for the region's world-class art – the National Art Gallery of Kenya and Eastern African Museum of Art, Nairobi – are expected to open within the next five years.
While small galleries exist (Peter recommends Circle Art, One Off, Banana Hill and Red Hill), many artists exhibit and work collectively. This communal approach creates a brilliant opportunity to view (and buy from) various artists under one roof, so next we headed to Kobo Trust (thekobotrust.com) to meet painter and mixed-media artist Onyis Martin.
Kobo's longest-standing member, Onyis joined in 2013 and regularly exhibits overseas, including at contemporary African art fair 1-54 London (1-54.com). Based in an old office building, each corner of Kobo Trust’s communal space hosts an individual's "studio": some pristine, others – like Onyis' own – swathed in a detritus of paint, newspaper and congealing papier-mâché.
There’s also a dedicated gallery displaying the diversity on offer, from vibrant woodcuts of Matatu minibuses to body-positive nudes created using bleach – but I was transfixed, perhaps more so than by any of the other works I’d seen, by a reclaimed door, shadow figures set within its shimmering glass planes. Onyis strolled to my side.
"As Kenyans, we couldn't enter Colonial houses unless we worked there," he explained. "So now I reframe the doors to bring what we once couldn't access into a space that we now can."
I understood, then, the importance of all this creativity – why it’s as vital in its own backyard as on the world stage, and, for visitors, an essential, tangible window into today’s Kenyan culture that tracking wild dogs – or snapping the Big Five – simply can’t provide. That night I flew home, my head swirling with oil paint and dancing sculptures – above all, wishing I’d brought a bigger suitcase.
Essentials
Abigail was a guest of Eden Nairobi (00 254 112 901 305; eden-nairobi.com), which has double rooms from £590 per night, including breakfast. Bespoke art safaris are priced from £524 for four people. Follow Peter Achayo on Instagram @africanartmatters.
Read the original article on The Telegraph.
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