Syowia Kyambi: Art like few can

Syowia Kyambi's exhibition entitled Kaspale. (Courtesy)

Thursday, March 23 saw the opening of Syowia Kyambi's exhibition, Kaspale at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute. Syowia is one of Kenya's most renowned artistes. She represented Kenya on the world stage as part of the Pavillion of Kenya at the Venice Biennalle in 2022 - arguably the world's most prestigious global art event. Kaspale, however, is Syowia's first solo exhibition in Nairobi in seven years and showcases recent works by the artiste centred around the fictional character she created, known as Kaspale.

The mediums, which Syowia incorporates in her practice are performance and installation. She describes herself as a mixed media installation artiste and says that "she enjoys performing characters within my work to tell a story" in an introduction to her work published by Irish artiste Cieran Nash.