Of all the visual art forms exhibited in Nairobi, sculpture remains perhaps the hardest to encounter. In a city where gallery walls are dominated by oil and acrylic paintings, three-dimensional works are comparatively rare. That is what makes veteran sculptor Gakunju Kaigwa’s latest exhibition, Ancestral Grain, at Rooftop Gallery in Village Market feel like a welcome departure from the familiar.
“If you get a room with 10 visual artists, you would be lucky to have two sculptors. There seems to be a perception out there that sculpting is difficult, but I tell painters to make an effort before complaining. Some of the best sculptors you will ever come across, like Cyrus Kabiru, Denis Muraguri and Kepha Mosoti, are painter friends who I convinced to try sculpting, and they never looked back”, he says.
