Circle Art Gallery

Installing the Rest Residency exhibition at circle this weekend. Res(e)t - الإعادة is an exhibition of 21 multidisciplinary Sudanese artists
opening on Wednesday, 31 July until 23 August 2024. The Rest Residency is a program organized by Sudanese artists and cultural activists who came to Kenya after the conflict in Sudan has displaced them. They consist of filmmakers, painters, photographers, designers, and musicians.

Rest Residency in collaboration with Circle Art Gallery presents
Res(e)t - الإعادة An exhibition of 21 multidisciplinary Sudanese artists
opening on Wednesday, 31 July until 23 August 2024. The Rest Residency is a program organized by Sudanese artists and cultural activists who came to Kenya after the conflict in Sudan has displaced them. They consist of filmmakers, painters, photographers, designers, and musicians. Dates and times on the flyer.

We will be closed again this Tuesday, 22 July, in anticipation of the ongoing demonstrations in the city. We will be hanging the next exhibition from Wednesday, info to come shortly

Tomorrow is the last day to visit Tabitha wa Thuku’s magnificent retrospective exhibition of her career which spans over 35 years. We are open tomorrow from 12-5pm

Today was super quiet in the gallery so we celebrated Mahasin’s birthday and packed some of Tabitha wa Thuku’s sold paintings from her gorgeous solo exhibition at Circle. The exhibition ends this weekend so do try and visit, 10-5 tomorrow and 12-5pm Saturday and Sunday.

Circle will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday 16 July, as a precaution because of the scheduled protests. Please get in touch if you were planning to visit. Thank you

Thank you for joining us this afternoon for the artist talk with Tabitha Wa Thuku. This is the final week to catch Seasons Within a Season by .

We are open weekdays from 10:00 - 5:00pm
and weekends from noon to 5pm

If you are in Nairobi tomorrow, Sunday 14 July, please join us for Tabitha wa Thuku’s artist’s talk at Circle at 2pm. She is an amazing speaker and as well as the major works in her exhibition ‘Seasons within a Season’, we have lots of tiny sketches and mini paintings and works on paper to suit all our budgets - like this charming little scene. Hope to see you tomorrow

Join us this Sunday 14 July at 2pm for an artist talk with Tabitha Wa Thuku, on the occasion of her solo exhibition Seasons within a Season.

Born to small-scale farmers coffee farmers, it is apt that Wa Thuku marks time in the language of seasons by creating vivid visual anchors that intertwine approaches of observation, memory and imagination. This exhibition primarily highlights paintings and sculptures from over three decades of her artistic practice, with the earliest work from 1989, and the most recent paintings and sculptures from 2024.

In the painting Horizon Trio, Wa Thuku fuses memory and observation in the composition creating three distinct zones in the work, the foreground a reflection of the greens of her childhood home in Gatundu, the middleground, The Nairobi National Park rendered in dry impressionistic brushstrokes alluding to the movement of animals in the distance, and in the background, the horizon line of Kitengela merging with the sky.
Artwork Details: (L-R)
Horizon Trio, 2024
Mixed media on canvas
145 x 145cm

Cracked Bag (I)
wood and copper
45.5 x 33 x 21.5cm

In Escaping N**e, the artist stylistically depicts the vulnerable,and pleasurable experience of using an overhead shower for the first time in the house of a wealthy person in the city. It is easy to take this ubiquitous bathroom feature for granted, but in a not-so-distant past, urban centres were the only places with access to indoor plumbing and grid electricity, and therefore it was a novel experience encountering a bathroom with running water and a showerhead. While there is a lightness to this painting in the upward tilt of the n**e woman’s head, her feet unanchored to the ground, and the play of light a dream-like haze, the conditions in which the painting is made point to differently classed experiences made apparent in intimate spaces such as bathrooms. In this way a mundane everyday activity, also holds more nuance for the viewer to consider.

Wa Thuku aspires for her work to not only live now but to mean something for future generations.
Artwork Details:
Tabitha Wa Thuku
Escaping N**e, 2010
Mixed media on canvas
147.5 x 152 cm

SEASONS WITHIN A SEASON | Tabitha Wa Thuku

Seasons Within a Season serves as a carrier for stories that characterise the artist’s life. Born to small-scale coffee farmers, it is apt that Wa Thuku marks time in the language of seasons by creating vivid visual anchors that intertwine approaches of observation, memory and imagination. This exhibition primarily highlights paintings and sculptures from over three decades of her artistic practice, with the earliest work from 1989, and the most recent paintings and sculptures from 2024.

The show runs until 20 July, 2024. Please come visit us at the gallery or follow the exhibition online via link in bio.

In the series of wooden sculptures Cracked Bag (I-IV) ongoing since 2017, Wa Thuku chisels out wooden handbags from pieces of chopped down logs rescued from the firewood pile. Their textured surface, charred black or scored brown in overlapping hatchlines renders like the lines on the palm of one's hands transferred onto the sculptures that also incorporate other found objects.

With these sculptures, the artist is returning the soul to dead things meant for the fire; the bags carry the souls of these felled trees.

Artwork details:
Slide 1 & 2 : Tabitha Wa Thuku, Cracked Bag (I), 2020, Wood and copper, 45.5 x 33 x 21.5 cm
Slide 3 : Cracked Bag (III), 2017, Wood and copper, 32.5 x 30.7 x 19.5 cm
Slide 4 & 5 : Cracked Bag (IV), 2024, Wood, steel and other found objects44.5 x 36.5 x 35 cm

To the families of the children lost during the ongoing protests, our hearts are heavy with grief and our thoughts are with you. We extend our deepest condolences and support during this difficult time.
Adjusting to the ongoing protests, Circle will be adjusting our gallery hours and will be closing at 4pm throughout the month of July. We remain open from noon to 5pm on weekends.

Seasons within a Season | In the painting Laureate’s anger, Wa Thuku channels the spirit of Wangari Maathai, in particular her fierce advocacy to protect forests and public parks, increasingly under threat of being grabbed for private development. Here, Wa Thuku also recalls the beauty and darkness that characterised the dense, soulful forests she grew up surrounded by. The lush and dense paintings in this season are calls into these forests of her childhood, now since gone. Remembering the echoes which carried her voice to her mother and siblings, Wa Thuku continues to find ways to carry forward the lost spirits of the forests, the grass plains, and the sky.

Due to the scheduled demonstrations and general strike throughout the country tomorrow, Circle will remain closed to reopen on Wednesday 26 June 2024.

Artwork Details: (L - R)
Tabitha Wa Thuku,
Horizon Trio, 2024
Mixed media on canvas
145 x 145cm

Cracked Bag (I), 2020
Wood and copper
45.5 x 33 x 21.5cm

Seasons Within A Season by Tabitha Wa Thuku is now open and will run until 20 July 2024. Visit us in the gallery to view or explore the exhibition online on our website.
Link in bio 🔗

Gallery hours:
Monday - Friday (10am - 5pm)
Weekends (Noon - 5pm)

Artwork Details
Tabitha Wa Thuku
Hot Planet, 2008 - 2009
Mixed media on canvas
91.5 x 144.8 cm

This salon hang draws from artistic and curatorial experiences of working within the bounds of small spaces. Tabitha Wa Thuku’s early beginnings as an artist happened in Dandora, where she lived in a small apartment and primarily worked on paper for its availability, portability, and affordability. Her work at this time, like in all seasons, reflects her living spaces; moreso the size of her space, in which she made many small and intricately detailed paintings. Many of the iconic gestures in her work and experiments with texture made during this time continue to show up in later works at an expanded scale. The Dandora season is in Wa Thuku’s own words, the season that allowed her to build a life and career as an artist. She likens it to ngoi, a baby sling in Kikuyu, with the way this season has nurtured and carried every subsequent one. Most of the works included in this salon hang are from this period.
Explore the exhibition in person or online on our website via link in bio 🔗

OPENING RECEPTION | Thank you for joining us for the opening of Tabitha Wa Thuku’s Seasons Within A Season.
Slide through to see some snaps from the night.

The artist Tabitha wa Thuku preparing for her major solo exhibition which opens tonight at Circle. We are very proud of this exhibition Seasons within a Season, a retrospective of her career of over 3 decades. Photos courtesy of Lori Schiff. Come and join us

Seasons Within A Season a solo exhibition by Tabitha Wa Thuku opens this evening. Please join us from 6pm at the gallery as we celebrate the incredible work of .

Victoria Square, Riara Road, Nairobi

Circle Art Gallery is delighted to announce a solo exhibition for Tabitha Wa Thuku which opens next week, on Wednesday 19 June at 6pm.

In the 35 or so years of her artistic career, Tabitha Wa Thuku has been journeying homewards. In different places and spaces, she has explored notions of home and belonging; to people, to herself and to the land. These seasons, as she calls them, come together to paint a rich tapestry of her life, and all the things she has seen and done on her odyssey. We invite you to share in this journey in the artist’s first major retrospective.

Circle Art Gallery remains closed for the public holiday on Monday 17 June, 2024. Please contact [email protected] to visit us.

Gallery views from this morning as preparation is underway for Tabitha Wa Thuku’s solo exhibition opening next week Wednesday 19 June, 2024. Save the date!

A few intense and wonderful days with the amazing octogenarian artist Theresa Musoke in Kampala looking at her archive and discussing her technique of dying the canvas before applying acrylic and gel mediums. We will be showing her work at the 1-54 art fair in London this October. Please get in touch if you are interested in receiving an portfolio in advance

Gorgeous new paintings at a recent studio visit with Donald Wasswa in Entebbe. It’s so interesting how his sculptures inform his paintings and drawings and vice versa. We should have some at the gallery soon. Thanks for a lovely visit and a great dinner by the lake!

And another studio visit in Addis with Engdaye Lemma to learn about the way he uses a transfer technique for texture and then applies other media. Thanks for the interesting conversations.

An exciting visit to Fetelework Tadesse’s (Fela) studio this weekend in Addis to see her work and drink coffee and get to know her

A visit to the fabulous Tiemar Tegene’s studio in Addis Ababa this week to catch up, see new work, learn more about her unique monoprinting technique and make plans. Thanks for hosting me!