Four artists display artwork on social groups in exhibition

Four artists have come together to display their artwork featuring social groups, specifically students, uniformed officers, protesters, and family in an exhibition dabbed Common Ground. 

Common Ground exhibition is taking place at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute and will run till September 23. 

Common Ground brings together artworks by four artists active in Kenya today namely Morris Foit, Peterson Kamwathi, Elias Mung’ora and Paul Njihia. 

Njihia said in the artworks, each of the artists considered the behaviour of the social groups as a unit and their relationships with the physical and social spaces they inhabit.

"Comprised of drawing, painting and sculpture, the exhibition highlights artworks that were created within the last decade,"Njihia said. 

Njihia, currently based at Kobo Trust Studios, began his art career in 2010 with commissioned portraits as a way of making income while he was a university student.

"I became a full-time artist upon completing my studies in 2013, and joined the Kuona Trust Art Centre in January 2014," he said. 

Njihia's work is drawn from his experiences in social settings, paying close attention to the relationships between the observed, and the observers.

For Elias Mung’ora, he said he initially studied real estate and property management before changing course to pursue a career as an artist. 

He works predominantly in painting, combining it with other mediums such as drawing and photo collage.

Mung’ora has been an active member of BrushTu Artist Studio since 2015.

Morris Foit, one of Kenya’s most renowned sculptors, was born as Morris Njau but chose to rename himself after his Czech tutor who offered him his earliest lessons in sculpting.

Working mainly in wood, Foit creates sculptures of varying scale and complexity which display a keen understanding of the material. 

Peterson Kamwathi explores physical presence, modes of behaviour, embedded symbolisms and latent meanings that are present in and can be deduced from human groupings, social customs and collective political/religious patterns.

Kamwathi’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues around the world and he was part of the Kenya national pavilion at 57th Edition of the Venice Biennale in 2017.

Common Ground exhibition is open free for the public from 10 am to 6 pm on weekdays and on Saturdays from 11 am to 6 pm.