Contemporary Kenyan art draws on a workshop movement analogous to the better known Centre d’Art in Haiti in the 1940’s, the Oshogbo workshops in newly independent Nigeria (from which Twins Seven-Seven and others emerged) and the Central African Workshop School in Southern Rhodesia, which gave rise to the Shona stone sculpture movement. The Paa-ya-Paa Art Center opened in Nairobi in 1965, two years after Kenyan independence. Other centers followed, such as the Kuona Trust Art Studio, Banana Hill Art Studio, Ngecha Artist Association and more recently the Godown Arts Center. Many of Kenya’s leading artists, such as Sane Wadu and Kivuthi Mbuno, worked at these centers and first exhibited commercially at the ground-breaking Gallery Watatu, founded in Nairobi in 1969.
I will be out of town from July 9th to 17th, and so will not be shipping orders or open for visitors at the gallery. The Indigo Arts website will be active as always. I will respond to emails as soon as possible. I will be able to ship orders after July 17th, 2025.
