Everything your eyes touch at the Kamene Cultural Centre in Nairobi carries an artistic overlay. It’s an intimate space—quaint, warm, and quiet—just the kind of place where even a brooding platypus might find peace.
On May 3, 2025, it will host Njenga Ngugi, a young artist with an old soul, in his solo exhibition titled “Dark Clouds Bring Waters”. It’s a vulnerable, resounding response to his own insecurities.
Like many artists, Njenga started young. He loved colours and was always tinkering with drawings. “Even when I had other toys,” he recalls, “I’d always go back to drawing.”
After high school, he thought he’d become an architect—his drawing skills pointed that way—but he instead enrolled in Kenyatta University’s Fine Arts programme, where he met kindred spirits.
Until then, he hadn’t realised art could be a career. The only professional artists he knew were signwriters. Then, one day, a televised interview with portrait artists shifted his perspective. “It made me more intentional,” he says.
He set a target for himself: imitate the artists he admired, then move on to YouTube tutorials. “By the time I was joining Kenyatta University, I was at the same level as most of my peers,” he says.
He joined Brushtu Art Studio—what he calls his apprenticeship phase. The studio was a crucible for artistic growth, where iron sharpened iron. He learned style and technique from generous mentors and began attending exhibitions to expand his perspective.
'The Headless Man' mixed media art on canvas by Njenga Ngugi at the Kamene Cultural Centre in Nairobi on April 30, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
Through Paul Njihia of Kobo Trust, he met artists like Chris Martin and David Thuku—and eventually Kaloki Nyamai, under whom he worked as an understudy.
From Kaloki, Njenga says, “The learning was on a different tangent. Eye-opening.” He was stunned by Kaloki’s achievements and grateful for the opportunity to observe the artist’s full creative process. “Everything I did under him added to my arsenal.”
Still, something was missing.
“Inasmuch as I was gaining as an artist, I hadn’t been drawing for myself,” he reflects. “I felt punished when doing something not related to my art.”
He’d done what others told him to, but it wasn’t working. “I didn’t believe in my ability. Even when I made something good, I couldn’t see it as good. My self-belief was flaccid.”
This marked the beginning of a deep introspective journey.
The result is “Dark Clouds Bring Waters”—an exploration of the unconscious, of shadow, of the places artists (and people) fear to look. The exhibition is inspired by the idea that what you seek can often be found where you’re afraid to go.
“I had to confront why I didn’t believe in my own work—and the answers were uncomfortable,” he says. “I hadn’t been truthful with myself. My voice was dim compared to those around me. But I had a responsibility to make sure the ideas I had for my art came out in the purest form, because I understood them best. I was just a messenger—my job was to etch the message clearly.”
Njenga sold his first piece for Sh30,000. Since then, his rates have steadily risen.
His love for drawing has kept him grounded on paper—a choice that defines his work. He begins by soaking the paper in water and colour, letting it dry. Then, on that blank sheet, he co-creates with his muse.
“Most artists work on canvas. I challenged myself to use paper, to make it just as good,” he says. “I wanted to elevate an everyday medium into something grand.”
That he does. Njenga, young as he looks, has an old-school painter’s sensibility. His colours, composition, and life-like renderings give off the feel of a renaissance artist with a surrealist touch. He joins the ranks of bold contemporary artists like Mwass Githinji and Shamia Baraka—painters unafraid to paint the morbidly beautiful.
“I don’t look at darkness as bad,” he says. “It’s unexplored territory. Yes, there’s chaos—but there’s also gold. There’s so much life in there for the harvest.”
Njenga’s “dark” is richly textured and brave. It’s a theme many artists avoid because of its complexity and ambiguity. But even if you don’t quite grasp the meaning, his gift is hard to ignore.
'Rebirth Ink', charcoal and pastel on paper art by Njenga Ngugi at the Kamene Cultural Centre in Nairobi on April 30, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
His gothic colour palette and hyperrealist detail result in portraits that become more vivid the farther you stand from them. His blend of classical and contemporary techniques makes this exhibition a quiet yet confident declaration: he is good enough.
For Njenga, art is an act of faith. He doesn’t impose on ideas—they come to him, and he works with what’s given.
“You can’t tackle uncertainty without faith,” he says. “Artists live on the edge of reality. They fight with the unknown to bring it into the light. You must be anchored in both the known and unknown, or risk getting lost.”
Njenga Ngugi’s exhibition “Dark Clouds Bring Waters” runs at the Kamene Cultural Centre until May 31, 2025.
