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<\/a>Michael Soi with his painting \u201cSee No Evil\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Kenyan artists Michael Soi, Thom Ogonga and John Kamicha enjoy creating provocative art that unsettles the status quo. They also don\u2019t shy away from producing paintings that challenge the public to think deeply about the social issues behind their imagery. Which of course means not everyone likes what they produce, and that includes the paintings on display at Alliance Francaise Nairobi since the 3rd April in a show titled\u00a0\u201cSex and the City\u201d<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of those who saw the exhibition found it distasteful and disturbing. That sort of reaction doesn\u2019t fluster the artists one bit. In fact, they quite like being attacked in the public sphere for violating the conventional sense of propriety. They know their fans outnumber the moral critics, including those that tried to have Sex and the City shut down. Soi, Ogonga and Kamicha don\u2019t mind when they are told their art is \u2018in bad taste\u2019, especially since Ogonga and Soi began doing \u2018research\u2019 in the bars and back streets of Nairobi, exploring what goes on after dark when people who are out at that hour believe \u2018nobody\u2019s looking\u2019. It\u2019s those indiscreet moments that Soi and Ogonga enjoy employing in their art.<\/span><\/p>\n What goes on when expatriates end up at bars where African women are agile pole dancers<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Painting without sensationalism, all three artists in the show have a flair for exposing sides of their city few people know much about and those who are familiar with these nocturnal activities prefer to keep quiet about the part they play in those aspects of Nairobi night life, for obvious reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of us appreciate the freshness and honesty of their paintings, especially as their art can be seen as chronicling current social realities. That includes phenomena like what goes on when expatriates end up at bars where African women are agile pole dancers.<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, a painting like Soi\u2019s\u00a0See no Evil<\/em>\u00a0portrays several themes that the artist is currently examining artistically, such as the voyeuristic nature of Nairobi club life and interracial relations both between white or Asian men and African women and between white women and young African men.<\/span><\/p>\n Omari and his Women. \u00a9 Michael Soi<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n One such African man in Soi\u2019s work actually has a name. It\u2019s Omari and he has become a recurring subject in a number of Soi\u2019s most recent paintings. His exploits with women (both white and black) as portrayed by Soi reveal the sort of storytelling style that the artist has become notable for.<\/span><\/p>\n Ogonga also tells stories with his nightlife paintings, although his images seem more innocuous at first glance and he paints his subjects to look quite beautiful. Until you realise the women in particular might be that attractively dressed because of the sort of nightly business that they\u2019re in, which involves attracting well-to-do men, be they white, black or brown.<\/span><\/p>\n Thom Ogonga with his painting \u201cSlow Night\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n But for all the controversy that may have raged around\u00a0Sex and the City<\/em>, none has been as ferocious or censorial as that generated by the art of Kamicha.<\/span><\/p>\n The vociferous charge that the artist was \u2018blasphemous\u2019 derived from one specific painting by which fundamentalist Christians were deeply offended.<\/span><\/p>\n John Kamicha with his painting \u201cLast Supper\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Having seen Kamicha\u2019s collage titled Sex Retreat on Facebook the night before the show opened, a squad of Christian censors virtually stormed Alliance Francaise demanding that the painting be removed. What they couldn\u2019t stand was a suggestive image they believed to be Jesus Christ surrounded by semi-nude women and other images they felt were anti-Christ-like.<\/span><\/p>\n The painting that ruffled the most feathers: \u201cSex Retreat\u201d by John Kimachi<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Fortunately, the artist was on hand when AF cultural coordinator Harsita Waters was being confronted by the moralists who were insisting the collage be removed.<\/span><\/p>\n The artist who hadn\u2019t expected such a violent reaction was willing to comply, but many people have complained ever since that the fundamentalists were violating not only the artist\u2019s right to express himself freely but also the public\u2019s right to see what Kamicha had to say.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>