Kitengela Glass Trust pioneered Glass Art in Keny

Why glass art is moving from churches to homes       

By Margaretta wa Gacheru margacheru@gmail.com

 

 

 

One piece of stained glass art by Tonney Mugo. PHOTO  by Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, August 28  2014 at  16:02

Glass art is a universal art form that one can find almost anywhere in the world, find almost anywhere in the world, or rather in places where religions have taken root.

Glass art in the form of stained glass windows or intricate mosaics can be seen, either in Christian cathedrals, Hindu temples or Islamic mosques.

In East Africa, glass art came with Christian missionaries who built churches that used colourful stained glass windows to illustrate stories from the Scriptures.

Such windows inspired artists like Jak Katarikawe whose early paintings will be on display from September 1st at the Nairobi Gallery.

In Kenya, glass art is currently a thriving field that can be found not only in churches, temples and mosques but also in private homes, hotels and high-rise offices as well as in restaurants, banks and public parks.

Glass Dome in private home cum office in Karen by Nani Croze and Kitengela Glass. photo by Margaretta wa Gacheru

The most unusual place to find glass art in undoubtedly at the Kitengela Glass Trust where, since 1979, Nani Croze has created a veritable glass village in which one can find cement and mud huts covered in glass, chicken and turkey houses shaped like Maasai manyattas covered in glass and even a glass bridge that spans a wide, overgrown ravine enabling visitors to reach her picturesque glass ‘museum’ in record time.

But Kitengela Glass is not the only place to find glass artists, although a great many Kenyans have gotten their start apprenticing in glass with Nani.

Kitengela Glass Bead Hut designed by Nani Croze with glass mosaics made by Edith Nyambura. Photo by Margaretta
 

One is Edith Nyambura who’s assisted her mentor in placing glass tiles all over Kitengela’s swimming pool floor and on the front edifice of its brand new Bead Hut.

Edith Nyambura of Kitengela Glass created mosaic glass table and chairs perfect for outdoor gardens. Phonos by margaretta wa gacheru
 

A number ‘Kit’ novices have also been trained by the stained glass artist Bernhard Viehweber whom she called from the renowned Hadamar Glass Institute in Germany to help her teach members of her staff the art of creating stained glass.

Bernhard worked closely with Nani for several years before he shifted to Westlands where he set up his own Prisma Art studio.

It was there that he met Tonney Mugo, who was already apprenticing at the Glass Gallery with Philippa Simpson, a skilled glass engraver who has since left Kenya.

Tonney was keen to advance and diversify his own skills in glass art, so when he heard about the Hadamar Glass Institute, he applied and got into the German school, where he learned everything from engraving to glass painting and ‘fusing’.

Today, both Tonney and Bernhard are back in Kenya creating glass art and based at Kuona Trust.

Meanwhile, Bernhard worked for several years in Canada before returning to Kenya last year. Now he works part-time at Kitengela Glass. All three glass artists are frequently commissioned to create stained glass windows both for churches and private homes all over Kenya.

For instance, Nani’s glass art can be found up and down the Coast, in hotels and churches.

In Nanyuki, Bernhard has designed a glass wall at the Ol Jogi Ranch; and at the Nairobi National Museum, both Tonney and Nani have created formidable glass works.

Both artists have created impressive glass art pieces for hospitals as well: Nani, working with a group of Kenyan women artists, constructed an eight-foot tall cement and steel ‘African Mama’ covered in glass mosaic at Kenyatta Hospital, while Tonney created a stained glass window which was recently hung in the Pumwani Maternity Hospital.

But what’s equally exciting about the genre of glass art is that a number of up and coming artists are discovering its beauty and versatility.

Currently, at The Hub, a new art and entrepreneurship training centre on Waiyaki Way just past Westlands, a young painter named Kendi Mbabazi Mwendia has a small exhibition of glass art which is quite different from the stained glass and dale de verre pieces that the other three are creating.

Inspired by the functional art of Kitengela Glass as a child, Kendi said her father had bought a beautiful glass table from Nani around 20 years ago.

Edith and Nani and the rest of the Kitengela Glass team created this beautiful glass mosaic map of African. Photo by Margaretta wa Gacheru

“I remember lying under the table as a little girl and looking up at all the bright colours shining through the glass,” says Kendi who creates her art pieces by painting on glass.

That colour spectrum that she saw in the family table as a little girl apparently inspired two of her glass paintings, one that’s still at The Hub entitled ‘Psychedelic’, the other which was sold soon after her exhibition opened.

A graduate of Rusinga High School in Nairobi where she painted frequently and USIU where she majored in International Relations and rarely painted at all, at 24, Kendi plans to do lots more with glass.