A group exhibition, Shifting Tides III, showcases works exploring evolving identities, personal growth, belonging, and renewal through figurative and mixed media work.
The exhibition features 64 artworks by emerging artists Lucky Kyalo, Achieng Owira, Thuo, Njeri Njoroge, Alvin Sudi, Thuku Chege, Billy Chelide, Stiv Ngokxe, Joe Asewe, Ronny Enos, Eugene Oduor, Saviour Juma, Tamara Rachel, Paul Moses Njuguna, Dennis Angura, Lore Achieng, Darvise, John Ngugi, and Trizah Aiso.
Curated by Onyis Martin and presented by the Seven Artists Collective, the show runs from June 13 to July 4 at Kobo Trust, on Riara Road, Nairobi.
Lucky Kyalo presents a series on identity formation, using fragmented figuration and cubism to express psychological transitions.
Fragments of Self I and II show different faces; at the centre is her current self, with the other faces as her past and future selves.
Her past self represents certainty since it has already taken place, while her present represents uncertainty, and the future is imagined with anticipation.
“The two pieces are about the blindness of the current self, in which I don’t really know what I’m doing. At my age, navigating life is hard. I don’t have a standard way of going through it, and I just hope I am doing the right thing,” she says.
In Fragments of Self III, Kyalo depicts clarity over the things that she is sure about in her current self, while Fragments of Self IV explores the feeling of not having a place to land.
Mixed-media artist Saviour Juma is about his personal experiences and depicts cycles of life and resilience.
His work Roots to Wings incorporates bicycle chains to represent life’s cycle while using recycled materials like bottle cans to show his upbringing in Kibera.
He burns the bottle cans and explains the process as a form of transformation, turning one state into another.
“People think Kibera is only about poverty, but it is also a place of opportunity. I am trying to show that there is always another chance,” he says.
The Sea of the Second Chance I speaks about missed opportunities.
The work shows that one can renew the situation to make it better for the future, with the colourful faces in the piece representing hope for a second chance.
In his series Where We Belong I, II, and III, John Ngugi explores how relationships between us and other people and with ourselves are influenced by emotions and experiences.
Ngugi personifies emotions and thoughts in his figures; a blue figure represents wisdom, which witnesses interpersonal conflict between two figures facing away from each other.
“When two people are in disagreement and walk away from each other, it shows a lack of wisdom. Wisdom is disappointed when people do not take action to understand each other,” he says.
He also uses skeletal figures to challenge people not to judge on the surface level but to look deeper at what motivates people's actions, such as their personality, emotions and background.
The exhibition title represents a change in relationships for him.
“Relationships have highs and lows, like tides. It is also about how relationships evolve from the time you get to know a person to knowing them really well. Even as I show different figures, the background colour is the same to show the flow of change,” he says.
Eugene Oduor explores self-confidence and cultural expression. He references the cultural significance of kangas as communicative textiles used to convey messages in communities, noting that they are disappearing in contemporary life.
His use of kanga textile patterns as backgrounds in Joy in Becoming represents self-acceptance and individuality.
The Sunshine also shows how the youth choose not to engage with contemporary trends to develop personal identity and interests.
“What makes you seem like an outsider is what makes you unique. It is about embracing what makes you unique, falling back in love with yourself,” he says.