AFRICAN ART 'THE NEXT BIG THING' says BBC

Why African art is the next big thing//// By NAVEENA KOTTOR//// Friday, June 28 2013: BBC//// With major museums in London and New York showcasing leading contemporary African artists this summer, and Angola's recent success at the Biennale in Venice, is the world of art finally putting Africa on its map? Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui is among the most celebrated contemporary African artists at the moment. Among his most iconic pieces are sculptures made from thousands of bottle tops, strung together with copper wire to form enormous shimmering sheets, which undulate and fold into different shapes. Mr Anatsui's installations are currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York - one of the few solo exhibitions of an African artist at a big institution in the United States in the last few decades. "El Anatsui's career has taken on a meteoric rise," says Kevin Dumouchelle the curator of the exhibition. "At the beginning he was regarded as the best contemporary artist in Africa, but he made a leap and has become a global artist." Growing interest Mr Dumouchelle acknowledges that most visitors are rather surprised when they see who is on display. "There is definitely a sense of catching up," he says. And Mr Anatsui is not only being celebrated in New York, but also across the Atlantic in the UK. Following an invitation from the Royal Academy in London, he has created a large wall-hanging sculpture for the duration of this year's summer exhibition. The installation in London coincides with several exhibitions this summer of other contemporary African artists at Tate Modern - one of the leading contemporary art museums in the world. The museum is preparing for the first major retrospective of Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi, as well as a special installation of the works of Meschac Gaba from Benin. Tate acquired Mr Gaba's work as part of its drive to expand their existing collection with pieces by African artists. "Historically Tate's international collection concentrated on art from Western Europe and North America," says Kerryn Greenberg, one of the curators at Tate specialising in art from Africa. She says the new acquisitions acknowledge that some of the most dynamic and important works of art are being created in Africa. "There does appear to be a growing interest in African art, especially in the UK. African artists are becoming increasingly mobile and visible and exhibiting internationally." Breakthrough Tate's decision to expand their collection of African art was noted among curators as well as private collectors, and is widely seen to have contributed substantially to the current buzz about African art. Bonhams in London is the only auction house with an annual sale dedicated to contemporary African art - the first auction was five years ago. "After years of having to push at closed doors, the recent sale in May felt like a breakthrough," says Giles Peppiatt, director of Bonhams' African Art department. According to Mr Peppiatt there was a lot of interest from museums and private buyers in Europe and the United States, but also from Africa, especially Nigeria. "People are much more interested in Africa commercially. The continent is seen as the next big thing, and there is an enormous amount of wealth among Africans." Compared to contemporary art from other parts of the world, the prices for African art are still quite modest, and investors are seeing it increasingly as a good investment. Public museums don't have lots of money, so their curators have to look over the hill and see what might be the next big thing," says Mr Peppiatt. Africa's increasing presence on the international art market helped Koyo Kouoh - a Cameroonian-born curator - to secure funding for the first contemporary fair for African art in London later this year. She says the idea has been in the pipeline for years, but the increased focus on African art internationally and the increased prominence of African art professionals made all the difference. Huge surprise "We have corporate sponsors from Africa as well as philanthropic funding from Europe. Everything is coming together." Ms Kouoh has just returned from the Venice Biennale - one the world's most important events for international contemporary art. A record number of African countries are represented at the biennale this year and Angola managed to secure the award for the best national pavilion, the first African country to ever win the prize. "It changes the perception of Angola. The focus is not just on war anymore," she says. "The award is praise for Angola but also for Africa. African countries are getting more and more involved in promoting art and they are using art to promote their country." Works by Edson Chagas, a 36-year-old photographer based in Luanda, were the pavilion's showpiece. "It was a huge surprise," says Mr Chagas, "especially because it was the first time we were participating." Born in Angola during the civil war, he was sent abroad by his parents when he was 15. Later on he studied photography in Europe - in the UK as well as in Portugal. "There was no art school in my country so I decided to go to London. But my goal was always to come back to Angola," says Mr Chagas. "I really believe that after winning this award there will be more interest in my work and the works of other contemporary artists from Angola." Mr Chagas also hopes that the international recognition will prompt the government to use some of the country's petrodollars to fund the next generation of Angolan artists, so that they can be educated in the country. "Bursaries are the first step, but we also need money to create spaces so we can reflect on our country and its history." Until recently many African artists struggled to secure funding and recognition, but with the buzz about contemporary African art among museums and private collectors, Mr Chagas and fellow artists might finally be lucky. -BBC. My comment: How can you fail to mention kenyan artist peterson kamwathi's exhibition in Miami, Kenyan Paul Onditi's art exhibition in Frankfurt, Kenyans James Mbuthia and Kamal Shah's exhibition in London at SOAS the School of Oriental and African Studies and two more Kenyan artists exhibiting at the Venice Biennele right now!!! Hello! All this is happening but still not mentioned by BBC. and let us not forget the 8 Kenyan artists whose artworks just got auctioned at Bonhams' Charity Auction in late May. Why this blind spot to Kenyan art rising?

FATEMA, the paper artist who's got a gift for Paper Quilling

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Woman-turns-paper-into-creative-and-beautiful-designs/-/1248928/1881914/-/na374/-/index.html.//// Woman turns paper into creative, beautiful designs/// By MARGARETTA wa GACHERU Posted Thursday, June 13 2013 at business daily, nairobi Like many Kenyan women brought up in homes valuing traditions of family and femle domesticity, when Fatema Qureish chose a career along this lines. When she got the chance to go to college, she chose to study domestic science. It seemed like the right thing to do, especially as most women in her Dawoodi Bohra community were homemakers and she was also expected to follow suit. But it was at Bohrani Women’s Finishing College that Fatema discovered that though she enjoyed learning about ‘home management’ and ‘child development,’ it was ‘arts and crafts’ that captured her imagination. Training: “College is where my love for the arts began,” said Fatema who met and married Qureshi shortly after her graduation. She didn’t forget her desire to develop her skills as an artist. The opportunity came when she was accepted at a craft training institute in India. Located in Mumbai near where the community spiritual leader is based, “So Quriesh was able to come see me often during my course,” Fatema says. Techniques; The course was relatively short—one year—but intense and ‘hands on’. “I learnt many techniques, handled a variety of tools, and worked with multi-media—everything from papers and paints to wood, clay, glass and glue.” Today, Fatema describes herself as a Paper Artist. Paper quilling is the technique she uses, which requires patience, precision and focused energy. Workshop; Working with thin strips of paper, a quilling needle and deliberate dabs of white glue, she works wonders creating two and three dimensional paintings and sculptures purely made with paper. She also has a flare for painting on everything from clay pots to kitchen windows. But it’s her paper quilling that Fatema promotes, offering workshops in both basic and advancing quilling, most of which are held in her Karen, Saifee Park Estate, home. What’s remarkable about Fatema is that while her workshops are mainly based in her home, allowing her to retain the traditional image of a good Muslim woman. She has built a reputation and increasingly attracting women, mainly, from around East Africa who are looking to attend her ten-day ‘basic’ workshop. It costs Sh5500, including art materials, while her two week advanced workshop is Sh8000. “I also have a lot of teachers who can only come on weekends, so I run Saturday workshops for them.” But to my mind, her children’s holiday workshops sound like the most fun: “I’ve found you have to give them a different challenge every day,” said Fatema who teaches kids from five to ten years for almost two weeks for Sh4,000 (art materials again included). Skills: From painting on pots, mugs and glass to paper quilling, candle and card making, Fatema’s two children are also beneficiaries of her work, learning all their mother’s skills. Fatema has even named her small business Amathus Arts by combining her children’s names—Amatullah, 10 and Husain, 3.

KYALO'S RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION at Red Hill Gallery & Elaine's at Que Pasa!

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Young-artist-showcases-retrospective-art-in-city/-/1248928/1889288/-/44aj1jz/-/index.html///// Young artist showcases retrospective art in city//// By Margaretta wa Gacheru/// Posted Thursday, June 20 2013 at Business Daily/// In Summary: Kyalo’s artistic energies have been appreciated widely such that his paintings hang on walls all over Nairobi and in the UK, the US, Zimbabwe and Cameroon./// KYALO JUSTUS showcases retrospective art AT RED HILL GALLERY/// There was a new wave of artistic energy that gripped Nairobi in the early 1990s, especially in the field of visual arts and Justus Kyalo was one of its forerunners. Kyalo’s initial training was from the popular comic books and magazines by Marvel. He later joined the Creative Art Centre, one of the institutions partly responsible for generating some of that ‘new wave’ energy of the 90s. Today, he has qualified to have a retrospective exhibition of his art. Most retrospectives are held by old men (or women), which Kyalo is not! He started drawing, painting and illustrating educational comic books for CARE Kenya, an international not for profit organization, straight out of secondary school, having found his ‘mentors’ in Joe Magazine and Picha Hadithi, both the products of Terry Hirst’s fertile imagination. At CARE, he crafted Pied Crow until 1994 when he shifted to the short-lived Yakini Art Gallery. It was at Yakini that Kyalo held his first solo show which featured the first of his Womanscape series. Then he was still doing figurative drawing, inspired by the world of global fashion, but his style has shifted over the years as shown in his retrospective show. It’s shifted depending on his personal preference and passion both for contemporary dance and popular music. One of the first major shifts is a move towards fluidity and flow in his brush strokes as he got further into dance, but then his passion for music influenced him. "That was when I got into the abstract phase of my painting. It had to do with my wanting to express the feelings I got from the music,” said Kyalo who met Hellmuth Rossler, curator of Red Hill Gallery. He is the first Kenyan artist to exhibit at Hellmuth and Erica Rossler-Musch’s new gallery. His art is also part of the Rossler’s private collection. In fact, Kyalo’s artistic energies have been appreciated widely such that his paintings hang on walls all over Nairobiand in the UK, the US, Zimbabwe and Cameroon. His most recent works, which feature in the Red Hill show, were painted while he was in Lamu where he attended the Lamu Painters Festival. Kyalo is exhibiting at the Red Hill Gallery until the end of August. Viewings is by appointment over the weekends.///// There is a lot of contemporary art nowadays been shown in different restaurants across the city such as Le Rustique where Mikko Ijas, Andries Fourie and Nicky Marais have an ongoing show titled Synthesis: Remixing Locality until June 26th. The Talisman, in Karen, is featuring paintings by the Kuona Trust artist Ermias Ekube while neighboring Que Pasa is showcasing Elaine Kehew’s Horses series. Kehew has been in Kenya for the past six years and in that time, the qualified lawyer-turned-painter has held various exhibitions across the city with the most memorable being in Sevens restaurant, at ABC Place. Her show there was focused on Dhows and every one of her paintings sold. “I’ve been busy ever since, filling commissions and preparing for this [Que Pasa] show,” said the diminutive artist and mother of two on the opening night of her exhibition which runs through the end of July. Her fascination with horses started when her friend took her to several polo matches. She admired the animals grace, speed and agility.

Camille's awesome new work

Camille Wekesa is one of Kenya's most awesome painters. More news of Camille's work to come but i just had to share this one painting.

OKELLO Anthony is in an artistic CLASS OF HIS OWN!

Okello’s is an artistic class of his own By Margaretta wa Gacheru Anthony Okello is a Kenyan visual artist who’s in a class of his own. One can get an inkling of why I make that claim if you pass by OneOff Gallery in Roslyn where Okello currently has a one-man exhibition of his artworks, the first since moving his studio and home from Kahawa West (where a number of local visual artists stay) to Athi River. The move itself inspired a major series of paintings (entitled Masquerade), some of which are hanging in The Loft of OneOff, and two of which just fetched 5,000 pounds (or KSh640,000) at the prestigious Bonhams’ African Art Auction in London. It was the first time any Kenyan had been invited to participate in the annual art auction, but with support from Circle Art Agency, eight Kenyan artists went this year and all their art sold well, according to CAA’s Danda Jaroljmek. But as one observer pointed out, the diptych, also entitled Masquerade, may have sold for 5,000 pounds, but neither Okello nor the other seven received a penny for their art. The other seven are Cyrus N’gang’a Kabiru, Peterson Kamwathi, Michael Soi, Paul Onditi, Joseph ‘Bertiers’ Mbatia, Beatrice Njoroge and James Muriuki. Yet Okello himself is just fine with that arrangement. ‘We all knew in advance that the auction was for charity [the African Arts Trust, founded by multi-millionaire Devereux], so we didn’t expect to receive anything (monetarily),” says Okello who understands that once an artist appears on the Bonhams website, he or she has ‘arrived’ at the front door of the global art world since art patrons from all round the world attend that auction, either in person, by proxy or online. But there’s no doubt the artist could have used the cash, especially to buy art materials, such as the oil paints he uses in his work. For not only is Okello prolific (currently working on several series of artworks at once. Each painting has a texture and depth, enhanced with layers of paint which often completely cover massive cotton canvases. It’s on these massive canvases—two of which are in the OneOff show—that Okello has conceived his most important series of works since he graduated from BIFA (Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art) in 1999. Based on indigenous cultures and their respective cosmologies, Okello takes up questions raised by the ‘folk’ myths of people, starting with the Taita and the Luo. Actually, the very first mythological painting that he made (and sold to a British patron, meaning it’s not in Kenya anymore) was based on the Luo legend of Nyamgondho, (the fisherman) which was popularized in comic books (now called graphic novels) by Terry Hirst and the late Frank Odoi. But as Okello didn’t want to be type cast or sterotyped ‘by tribe’, he’s cast his artistic net across the country and now his mythology series will include myths from other communities start with the Taita. The two at OneOff (Class of 2012 and Orders from Above) are based on the Taita ‘folk tale’ about the tortoise who delivers a message ‘from above’ to earth where he is bribed by earthlings to reverse his message, leading to dire consequences. Painted just before the 2013 elections with heaps of irony and wit, Class of 2012 is clearly meant to mock Kenyan political realities where money tends to flow freely prior to election time. Orders from Above addresses issues arising from Tortoise’s turning the Message upside down, such that now, man is not supposed to resurrect as the Orders had previously promised. In the painting, Okello explores issues of life, death and resurrection from an intriguing, highly imaginative and symbolic point of view The depth of his message and the development of his own unique artistic imagery make both paintings masterpieces, although each is very different. Class of 2012 has almost a cartoonish character as he’s clearly mocking the bribers and money changers, while Orders from Above is filled with spirits, live and dead souls. I only wish the works could be bought by the National Museums of Kenya for its permanent collection or a patriotic Kenyan collector so that these two especially don’t have to leave Kenya as so many of our finest artworks have already done.

CALLING YOUNG KENYAN ARTIST: NEW ARTISTS RESIDENCY CALL FROM KENYA ARTS DIARY

Subject: Calling all Young Kenyan Artists to apply: Brand New Kenya Arts Diary ‘Young Kenyan Artists Art Residency Award’ Successful applicant will receive: • A full fee waiver for one month to work and reside full time at either Kuona Trust, Kitengela Glass Trust or Paa ya Paa Art Centre. • Funding to support art expenses (art materials, art workshops & art centre visits) • Access to a work station within a high quality artistic working environment where mentoring will be available in everything from artistic techniques and production to the business of marketing, pricing and selling one’s art • A bursary of KSh5000 a week for four weeks Background The Kenya Arts Diary has been coming out with a calendar cum catalogue of contemporary Kenyan art for the last three years. In that time, the Diary has been constructed by volunteers who care deeply about the development of Kenyan art and artists. To that end, the KAD crew highlighted the works of more than 200 artists, including brief biographies of the artists and means of contacting them directly. From the outset, the Diary’s founder, Nani Croze, has had a vision of assisting ‘emerging’ Kenyan artists in tangible, practical terms. The KAD Art Residency for Young Kenyan Artists is the expression of that vision. We are setting no age limit on applicants apart from their need to be a minimum of 18 years. This year we will only select one Art Residency awardee, but we look forward to expanding the residency to include more than one awardee in future, depending on the result of this first year. At the end of the four week residency, the artist will be given an Open Day exhibition of the work he or she has produced during the month. He or she will also be invited to make a presentation about the work produced and the process of participating in the KAD art residency. Criteria for Applicants The applicant must be: - a minimum of 18 years of age - available to reside at the art centre for one full month - a practicing artist who has already committed himself or herself to work as an artist on a full-time basis - prepared to send us images of at least three examples of their artwork - prepared to send a brief (maximum 50 words) bio about yourself, including your contacts, education background, current work station and CV. - prepared to write a 100 word (maximum) statement of purpose explaining what you intend to do during the art residency and why you feel you should be the first recipient of the KAD art residency award. - prepared to attend an interview in person the Kenya Arts Diary arts committee. Deadline for receipt of your application including your bio, images and statement of purpose is JULY 30, 2013 at 12 noon. Send your application by email to KenyaArtsDiary@gmail.com or hand-deliver it to Kuona Trust. Applications received after this date and time will be kept on file as reserves. The Art Residency will run from mid-August to mid-September 2013. OPEN DAY PRESENTATION During the open day presentation, the award winning artist may discuss any of the following issues: • Key issues, areas or questions explored in your art • How your Statement of Purpose relates to the artwork you produced during your art residency • Methods, techniques and media used during the art residency • If you were assisted by fellow artists or mentors, what form did that assistance take • Recommendations for future KAD art residencies. INQUIRIES For answers to any questions you may have, email KenyaArtsDiary@gmail.com.

NAI NI WHO STORY THAT RAISED A FEW HACKLES

NAI NI WHO? CELEBRATES THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF NAIROBI/// BY margaretta wa gacheru. Published may 31, 2013, Zuqka, Daily Nation./// A lot of serious thought and serious cash has gone into developing the current Nai Ni Who campaign that has organized urban festivals all around Nairobi. At the center of the organizing efforts is the GoDown Art Centre and Joy Mboya, one of the founders and ‘mother’- managing director of the Centre. Mboya is also a brilliant fund raiser whose magic touch gets everyone from the Swedes, the Swiss and Norwegians to the Belgians, the Brits and of course, the Americans to assist the GoDown in its drive to develop contemporary Kenyan culture and advance the country’s creative economy. In the case of Nai Ni Who (Who is Nairobi?), the GoDown’s ultimate aim is not simply to organize grassroot cultural festivals in 12 sectors or neighborhoods of Kenya’s capital city. The plan is not simply to mount festivals for festivals’ sake everywhere from Korogocho, Kariobangi and Mathare Valley to Dandora, Ruaraka, Huruma and Babadogo. Instead, the Art Center has got a long-term vision – to work jointly with what they call “local stakeholders” (NGO-speak for culturally active wananchi) to re-develop urban spaces in the city, especially those that can conceivably link the GoDown (which is set on the edge of the Industrial Area near the Nairobi Railway) to the City Centre. The GoDown has already been working with ‘stakeholders’ such as the Nairobi City Council, The Kenya Railways Corporation, and the Kenya Polytechnic (newly re-named the …..), as well as with local artists, private sector representatives and even the United Nations Habitat. For donor support, the Centre has also been working closely with a Swedish-based international firm, White Architects and the Belgian NGO, Bo Zar which has incorporated the GoDown into its European Commission funded regional project entitled ‘Visionary Africa: Art & Architecture at Work.’ Striving to contribute to what Mboya calls “a broader sustainable urban development…for Nairobi”, the GoDown even has ‘Vision 2030’ in mind as their plan to help develop the city into a ‘World Class African Metropolis’. The first phase of Nai Ni Who ran from May 18-24 and involved everything from live performances by local groups to fashion shows, sporting events, film screenings and even a ‘clean up and tree planting’ program in Mathare Valley. Aimed at celebrating all of Nairobi’s neighborhoods, not just those situated in Eastlands, there will be more Nai Ni Who events over the next few months, ideally evolving into an all-round transformation of urban spaces in the city with greater emphasis and appreciation of the city’s indigenous culture and its creative economy.

Deal Maker Advocates Corporates Invest in Contemporary Kenyan Art

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Deal-maker-sees-money-and-more-in-Kenyan-art/-/1248928/1867304/-/ib21tmz/-/index.html/// CORPORATE SUPPORT OF KENYA ART COMES EASILY TO INVESTMENT BANKER// By Margaretta wa Gacheru Published May 31 2013 in Business Daily, Nairobi/// From college intern in Washington, DC to corporate partner in Nairobi, Vishal Agarwal’s ascent up the corporate ladder began several years before Price Waterhouse merged with Cooper to become the giant transnational corporation that it is today. “There are 20 partners in PWC Kenya alone, 10,000 around the world based in 150 countries,” said the Bombay-born, American-trained partner who took time out from PWC for almost a decade in the 1990’s to become a successful investment banker whose line of work took him all around the world. “And everywhere I went, I saw African art hanging in international hotels and on corporate walls, yet when I came to Africa, I saw none of it in businesses that I visited. Clearly something was wrong; something needed to change. There was apparently no appreciation for the social commentary of contemporary African art,” said Agarwal, a man who’s spearheading the current drive for corporations to support contemporary East African art. Speaking to Business Daily in his private capacity as a patron of the arts, not as a spokesman for PWC, Agarwal feels passionate about the need for corporations to get behind the Arts in Kenya, just as he has seen corporates do in other parts of the world. Having only come to Kenya in 2004, Agarwal says he is awe of the incredible dynamism and economic development that he has seen all across the region in the past nine years. “This is clearly Africa’s time,” he said, noting that what’s happening all across sub-Saharan Africa is extraordinary. But as he has gotten better acquainted with the region, he has been troubled by the terrible gap that he has seen between the rapid economic development and the abject neglect of African culture and the arts. What he has also disturbed him is the fact that so much invaluable African art has been flown out of the region to cultural capitals in Europe and the States. He attributes what he calls this ‘flight of [African] art’ to the fact that there are so few local patrons who fully appreciate what’s going on culturally, aesthetically and even socially in the realm of contemporary African art. “The artists are not being promoted, yet all over the world it’s the artists who are the social commentators, who see what’s going on in society when others don’t,” said Agarwal, whose firm just recently sponsored a major group exhibition of abstract art that featured eight Kenyan artists together with three ex-patriot artists who’ve been Kenyan residents for many years. Curated by the Circle Art Agency, the showcase of the exhibition was the ground floor of PWC’s brand new building in Westlands, in the expansive and high-ceiling’ed wing known as Delta Corner. [The high-rise twin towers were actually built a few years back, but PWC acquired them late last year and officially moved in early this year.] “The exhibition opened to the public on a Friday night, but the evening before, we had invited most of the corporate CEOs in Kenya to a private showing of the artwork,” he said. Hoping to lead by example, his firm just recently commissioned one East African artist, El Tayeb Dawalbeit, to create a two-storied installation work of art that will stand solidly in the main lobby of the PWC building. The lobby in itself is a work of modern art. Made out of glass and steel with solid marble floors, everything about this impressive high-vaulted space bespeaks PWC’s corporate power, cosmopolitan spirit and cultural sophistication. Yet Agarwal has mixed feeling about the lobby’s slightly impersonal architectural design as it could easily be transplanted to any global city in the world and it could easily fit right in. “But what’s the point of working in a space that could just as well be found in London or New York?” asked Agarwal rhetorically. Noting that nowadays, corporate employees often spend more of their lives at work than in their homes, he felt compelled to commission an East African artist to create a piece of public art that could communicate a more localized mood and texture to both PWC employees as well as to the public at large. “Our idea is for the international to meet the local right here where the people may see how art can provide a social commentary on the times. [The commission] is meant to enable the public to appreciate the way art can reflect social realities and also be socially relevant. The selection of El Tayeb’s art was by no means a haphazard affair. On the contrary, Agarwal worked closely with the three cofounders of Circle Art, Danda Jaroljmek, Fiona Fox and Arvind Vohara, to organize an art competition involving local artists who were asked to provide a written proposal stating the conceptual background of artwork they each wanted to design and install at PWC. “We received a hundred proposals and we short listed nine out of which we selected El Tayeb’s,” said Agarwal who particularly likes the fact that El Tayeb’s proposal includes a multitude of colorful faces which will be set within two tall three dimensional ‘frames’ which he’s constructing from recycled wooden boxes which ideally will make a powerful commentary on the universal value of human beings, irrespective of their color, creed, gender or social standing. The competition itself was a creative catalyst which propelled Kenyan artists like the nine finalists, (namely Dennis Muraguri, Gor Soudan, Paul Onditi, Justus Kyalo, Xavier Verhoest, Anthony Okello, Sidney Mang’ong’o, Sam Hopkins, and of course El Tayeb) to come up with ingenious new ideas which they had to construct in miniature as well as explain conceptually. “My feeling is that artists are social commentators; their work reflects the times in which we live, and I want people, including our staff, to see the social value of the art.” But if Agarwal feels compelled to claim that corporates in Kenya have “a calling” to support the Arts, he adds that he is not simply being ‘philanthropic’ per se. “Contemporary African art is a bloody good investment,” he says. In fact, PriceWaterhouseCooper has been investing in Kenyan art for several years, according the firm’s resident art consultant Chou Sio. A qualified architect by training in the States, Chou not only helped re-design the public spaces of the PWC Building, a process that got underway soon after she came on board at PWC and shortly after the company’s partners decided to acquire the tallest Twin Towers in Westlands for KSh4 billion. She is also the one responsible back in 2007 for selecting a number of exceptional works of art by Kenyan contemporary artists, including Peterson Kamwathi, Yassir Ali, Anthony Okello, Elkana Ong’esa, Kotal Otieno, Tabitha wa Thuku and Jimnah Kimani, all of whose works are on the top floors of the PWC building. Confirmation of the fact that acquiring Kenyan art is an excellent investment came to Agarwal just moments before we met in his penthouse offices of PWC. He’d received word from Circle Art’s Danda Jaroljmek, who had just returned from London where the art of eight Kenyan artists had all been sold at the prestigious Bonham’s Art Auction, and all sold had sold for substantially higher prices than even she had anticipated. Among the artists whose works sold well at the annual London auction were two whose art PWC already owns, namely Peterson Kamwathi and Anthony Okello. “Of course, we paid a fraction of what those paintings are worth today,” observed Chou who visited all the artists’ studios before she presented her suggestions for the partners to finally approve which works they would like to acquire. Today, you will find Chou’s choice selections conspicuously hung in the lounges and open-air offices at PWC. “What’s the point of hanging paintings from other places when we are in Kenya and the artists have creative commentaries to make about our society today,” Agarwal said. Being an investment banker as well as a PWC partner, Agarwal’s main line of work involves ‘mergers and acquisitions’ (“I’m the resident ‘deal maker’ at PWC,” he confessed, noting he was intimately involved in designing the deal to acquire the PWC twin towers.) But his work also involves consulting with PWC clients and advising them on how best to maximize their profits; so that today, he doesn’t shy away from encouraging clients to consider their own corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to see how supporting local artists can be seen as part of their CSR. “Recently an international client came in to discuss their building a rural hospital as a service to that community,” Agarwal recalls. “I asked them what they intended to put on their hospital walls and I encouraged them to consider acquiring art by local artists as a way of supporting the arts.” Agarwal is aware that many Kenyan-based corporations don’t know much about the Kenya art scene or the fact that it is thriving though probably not in the same public or private spaces that members of the corporate community frequent. Nonetheless, he feels keenly that the dynamic development of contemporary art in Kenya will depend largely upon public and private investors cooperating to advance the arts in Kenya and support an incredibly creative community that he is happy to showcase at his PWC offices. Unfortunately, the ground floor ‘gallery’ space that he lent to the Circle Art Agency to mount their amazing Abstract Art exhibition early this month at Delta Corner will soon be transformed into a restaurant. But we local art lovers can only hope the new tenants will take up the ‘calling’ that Agarwal has sent out to the rest of the Kenya corporate community – to take seriously that their ‘corporate social responsibility’ can easily include supporting Kenyan art; and when they do, they will quickly find they have made not merely a philanthropic gesture, they will have made an excellent investment as well. For just as the African economy is on a roll and expanding rapidly, so is the value and the vital creative juices of the African artists as well. So when a man like Agarwal (who knows a ‘good deal’ when he sees it) says now’s the time to support the African arts, one would do well to sit up and listen and also become a patron of African contemporary art.