Happy anniversary! Manjano, the art competition that welcomes
all comers this month reached its 10th edition — so congratulations to
the GoDown Arts Centre of Nairobi that organises the event.
For
anything to last that long in the East African art world is a triumph
in itself and particularly happy returns are due because of the
encouragement this competition gives to young talent.
This
year entrants were invited to explore human interest in Nairobi; a
yawning brief into which any artist could fit just about anything. The
temptation to lift and dust an existing work must have been
overwhelming.
Of the 196 entries 50 were hung and they
can be seen in the exhibition area hived off from the first floor car
park of the Village Market, Gigiri, until April 22.
From
those lucky 50, ten finalists were chosen and the judges then awarded
three prizes (first, second and third) for each of two categories;
Students and Practicing Artists.
Except that they didn’t.
Their
choice for first prize in Practicing, it turned out, had previously
been submitted for the 2015 Manjano, and thus was disqualified under the
rule that all submissions had to be of works made in 2018.
What was that about lift and dust? Oh, the shame of it!
So, no winner in Practicing, just a second and third; although why they did not simply shuffle everyone up a peg I do not know.
Second placed was Andrew Chege with a huge (around 6ft by 4ft) cityscape called DYU See It?
… two angled skyscrapers in indigo set against a turquoise sky and with
burnt orange reflections of the setting sun against their sides — a
distinctive piece that lives in the memory. Certainly it deserved some
recognition.
Third in Practicing was an equally large
view of an orator orating an oration with a few wananchi slumped around
his podium. Called Compassion and notable for its flaming, headache-inducing palette, it was by Allan Kioko.
Winner of the Student section was Florin Mmaka with From my angle — The City, a small collage of a figure in which the head was replaced by a luscious red mouth.
Second was a view of traffic lights called Direct Orders
by Gohole Otto while Third was Taabu Munyoki’s rows of 42 faces in
different colour combinations that paid too much homage to Andy Warhol
and his Marilyn heads.
One of the great joys of a juried exhibition is to disagree with almost everything the judges decide.
Did
Manjano’s three judges — Beatrice Wanjiku, Maggie Otieno and Wambui
Kamiru Collymore; excellent artists all — tippy-tap their way around the
show with little white sticks?
Of course not, yet this year they seemed to get most of it completely, hopelessly and gloriously wrong.
That said, I must in fairness acknowledge that previous Manjano judges have a fine record for spotting talent.
Past
prize winners include a Who’s Who of the Kenyan art scene: Samuel
Githui, Onyis Martin, Elias Mung’ora, Michael Musyoka, Dennis Muraguri,
Andrew Mwini, Paul Onditi, Dickens Otieno, Florence Wangui and many
more.
The many more include Peter Walala, who won in
2015, came third in 2016, third again last year and in my view should
have won this year by at least 10,000 kilometres.
His wall hanging Nairobi Under Pressure
was of 430-odd tyre pressure valves, neatly stitched together and
framed. It should have been a shoe in, with wise judges regarding any
untypical minor imperfections in finishing as subsidiary to its overall
brilliance.
Walala is well known for his pithy comments
on consumerism in which dozens, if not hundreds, of fashion labels
taken from mitumba are carefully stitched together and framed. The
effect is beautiful and strangely uplifting.
Nairobi Under Pressure,
although sombre with its dark grey rubber tyres, glittered with the
polished brass of hundreds of pressure valves and it achieved
magisterial authority.
It was also by far the most
expensive piece on offer at an equally authoritative $14,000. (The
cheapest was a delightful little print of a matatu by Kelly Kinyua at
just $20, already framed. A snip.)
Michael Soi, another previous prize winner, was also cast into the darkness.
Acclaimed
internationally for his combination of comic book simplicity, social
commentary and biting humour he was not even a finalist.
His painting Separation of Church and State,
with its collision between the established Church and gay rights was
nonetheless cheekily placed on the outside wall of the exhibition space
in the expectation no doubt that it would attract the crowds.
With
it hung a couple of landscape sketches by the ever-improving Coster
Ojwang’ and a splendid view of the National Archive by Nelson Ijakaa.
Other delights included Conductor’s Chair, a decorated bench by Evans Ngure, a cityscape called Concrete Jungle by Leevans Linyerera, the almost lifesize tin wall sculpture Housegirl Basking on a Verandah, by Mike Kyalo and two finely made clay chess sets Power 1 and Power 2 by Moses Sabayi.
So, possible winners galore but not a prize for any of them in this year’s anniversary show.
Eleventh edition, here we come…
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