Exhibition: Synthesis – Remixing Locality, May 25 – Jun. 26 2013 @ Le Rustique Restaurant

Art Nairobi and Le Rustique are delighted to exhibit Synthesis: remixing locality by 3 artists from Namibia, Finland and USA.

Opens at Le Rustique restaurant on May 25, 2013
Exhibition Dates: Until June 26, 2013

Exhibiting Artists: Nicky Marais – Namibia, Mikko Ijas – Finland and Andries Fourie – USA

Nicky Marais
Nicky Marais is a Namibian painter and mixed-media artist. She employs a vocabulary of abstract forms and colour relationships that originate primarily from the Namibian landscape. Her paintings evoke a variety of geological landforms, plants as well as the material culture of her arid, sparsely populated and ruggedly beautiful homeland.
Nicky Marais is a Namibian artist, activist and educator who lives in Windhoek, Namibia, and heads the Visual Arts Department at the College of the Arts.

Mikko Ijas
Mikko lives and works in Helsinki. The means this artist uses to execute his drawings is everything but traditional. By combining the disciplined observation and skill of a traditional draughtsman or painter with the capabilities of contemporary digital equipment and technology (ipad), Ijas produces luminous and colorful drawings that are new and familiar at the same time. In his drawings, Ijas balances an interest in perception and realism with meaningful, productive distortion. In doing so his work is in dialogue with the history and traditions of painting while he also acknowledges the influence of contemporary artist like David Hockney, who explores similar interest in drawings on hand-held electronic devices. Written by Andries Fourie

Andries Fourie
Ancestral Voices: From Slaves to Matriarchs
This body of mixed-media works on paper addresses the role of South and Southeast Asian slave women, transported to South Africa by the Dutch in the 17thand 18th century, in shaping Afrikaans language, culture and identity. The aim of this work is to acknowledge this painful history, and to celebrate the diverse, non-western roots of Afrikaans culture.
While the work examines the influence of slave women in general, it also does so by focusing on the lives of two of the artist’s own slave ancestors: Ansela van Bengale and Catharina van Palliacatte.
Andries Fourie was born in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa in 1968. His work deals largely with contemporary and historical aspects of South African culture. In 1989, he immigrated to the United States. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at Willamette University in Salem Oregon, where he teaches sculpture.

Out of Town: 10th Sauti za Busara Festival, Feb. 14-17 2013 @ Old Fort in Zanzibar

Dates: February 14-17, 2013
Venue: Old Fort in Zanzibar
Festival Tickets*: EA Residents US $29, International Visitors US $109
Programme: Festival Timetable

*Festival admission prices vary with citizeship. Find full info here

The Festival
The festival will celebrate a lifetime achievement of bringing together artists and audiences from around Africa and beyond with enriching cultural experiences, promoting cultural diversity and social development for the past 10 years.
Sauti za Busara is an annual music event in East Africa and widely known as ‘the friendliest festival on the planet’. This edition will feature 200 musicians: more than twenty five groups from East Africa and beyond; acoustic and electric, upcoming and established – all performing live.

The Old Fort will host three nights of non-stop live music, with the main programme continuing Friday through Sunday with performances from 5pm until 1am.

The festival also features African Music Films: documentaries, music videos and live concert footage, all focused on promoting the richness and diversity of African music as screened in the amphitheatre of the Old Fort.

Headline Artist Cheikh Lo – Senegal
Headline artist for the 10th edition of Sauti za Busara is internationally acclaimed Baye Fall artist Cheikh Lo from Senegal. A superb singer and songwriter as well as a distinctive guitarist, percussionist and drummer he has personalized and distilled a variety of influences from West and Central Africa, to create a style that is uniquely his own.

To celebrate ten years of Sauti za Busara, the festival showcases “Best of the Best”; audience favourites of past years including Tanzania’s DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra.

Zanzibar’s Culture Musical Club will also showcase at the 10th edition and they remain the most prolific and successful taarab orchestra from East Africa.

Other main acts include Khaira Arby (Mali), Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka (Zimbabwe), Atongo Zimba (Ghana), N’Faly Kouyaté (Guinea), Nathalie Natiembe (Reunion), Nawal & Les Femmes de la Lune (Comoros/Mayotte), Wazimbo (Mozambique), The Moreira Project (Mozambique/South Africa), Owiny Sigoma Band (Kenya/UK), Mokoomba (Zimbabwe), Msafiri Zawose & Sauti Band (Tanzania), Mani Martin (Rwanda), Burkina Electric (Burkina Faso/USA), Lumumba Theatre Group (Tanzania), Sousou & Maher Cissoko (Senegal/Sweden), Super Maya Baikoko (Tanzania), Peter Msechu (Tanzania) and many more.

Networking Space
Sauti za Busara will continue to host the Movers & Shakers networking forum for local and visiting arts professionals. This networking space facilitates discussions, exchange and development of ideas on the creative industries in the East African region and beyond.

Fringe Events
It’s not just the festival that puts on a show; the local community is encouraged to take part by hosting Busara Xtra fringe events. These include traditional ngoma drum and dance, fashion shows, dhow races, open-mic sessions, after-parties and performances of Zanzibar’s oldest taarab orchestras as arranged by the local community.

For More Information: www.busaramusic.org

We are the world – Nairobi International Children’s Art Exhibition, Sept. 12-30 2012 @ National Museum

Dates: September 12 – 30, 2012
Venue: Cultural Dynamism Gallery, Nairobi National Museum
Entry: Museum Rates Apply

The theme of this exhibition is ‘We are the World‘

This is a biannual event that works with children from all over the world. Entries this year are from Kenya, Germany, England, Egypt, Belarus, Poland, Iraq, India, USA, Cyprus, Finland, Bulgaria, Spain and Austria.

The Nairobi International Children’s exhibition is organized by Juhudi Children’s Club and supported by National Museums of Kenya, The GoDown, Sports Station, A24 Media