Geraldine Robarts, Kioko Mwitiki and Patrick Mukabi, international prize-winning artists, have come together to create a Fine Art Festival. It will take place on June 11-12 in a beautiful garden in Karen, Nairobi, that also happens to be Robarts’ home.
The work of these three Kenyan artists is in demand internationally, and they have decided to come together to showcase their creations.
“Artists build strong communities. Strong communities build strong societies,” says the festival statement, adding that familial generations are also key to societal strength.
“With so many artists in Kenya, there is a good reason to expect a more unified, strong society.”
These three represent three generations of contemporary Kenyan art: Robarts, the older teacher; the generation of artists she has taught; and the generation of artists that their students, and in some cases their students’ students, have taught.
Patrick Mukabi has an international career background in painting and has been to many countries exhibiting, teaching and joining the artists' community wherever he is. His paintings are inspired by women and children in their natural environments. Many will recognise his pictures of females with curvy hips trading at marketplaces or carrying out everyday chores.
“Women are the fabric of African society,” says Mukabi. “If a woman is poor, the next generation also starts off poor. How well women are doing is the barometer of the health of society.”
Having achieved career success, Mukabi, 53, devotes much of his daytime to teaching in different places, from refugee camps to top schools and art institutions. He regularly opens his arts studio to students and at any one time, there are around 20 artists in training.
“Even someone with no talent can become an artist and be creative after about 10,000 hours of work,” Mukabi said. When does he find time for his own work? “Well, there is time between 6pm and bedtime.”
Kioko Mwitiki is an expert in the creation of steel sculptures and grew to fame as the original creator of life-like animals in steel. He is the artist behind the family of elephants at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which are so realistic that some travellers mistake them for real elephants. He makes sculptures using all manner of scrap items, which are in wide demand, and a number of his sculptures will be on display at the festival.
Mwitiki was a student of Robarts' at the Kenyatta University, and they have remained in touch over the years. "My students have always been my friends from 1974 to today,” Robarts said. “Now I'm 83 and detached from most things. I believe the most important thing is to help everyone if you can.”
Though Mwitiki’s steel animals have now been copied by others, testament to his ground-breaking art style, his talent stands far apart for its attention to detail, humorous subtlety, visual appeal of the sculptures and his ability to utilise the most random objects.
Geraldine Robarts has held many exhibitions of paintings around the globe and paints mostly in oils, her favourite medium. In her early career, Robarts was known for watercolours of landscapes, coastal scenes and cultural images, but has become more of an abstract painter during the last decade. The current paintings are all about the natural world and trees, with much inspiration coming from her own garden.
Since 1964, Robarts has taught fine art in East Africa, beginning at Makerere University in Uganda, Kenyatta University and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. A born teacher, even after leaving the university world, Robarts continued with art, setting up teaching studios at her home for private individuals. In her spare time, she has worked extensively with women’s groups in Uganda and Kenya, giving them skills for income generation and better health.
Robarts will talk about art to anyone who will listen and says she loves to be immersed in anything to do with creative art.
The three fine artists have taken this opportunity to bring in other creatives like musicians and storytellers who, they say, “ have had an even worse time during Covid-19 than painters, but who have so much to share, just like fine artists.”
Judith Bwire and friends will present live music played on traditional Kenyan instruments. Bwire is a dancer, singer and composer of Afro-fusion music and is skilled at playing the nyatiti, the Luo traditional lyre. The aim of a multi-faceted arts event, say the artists, is to inspire unity and understanding as well as inspiration and enjoyment.
