From new openings to artists talks and, of course, the Affordable Art Show; Nairobi’s creative scene is happening this weekend. You’ll find Nairobi’s art crowd out and about. If you know, you know. Step out, slow down, and get iNspired.
EVENTS & OPENINGS
Living Gallery Showcase Ed. 1 | The Living Rooms | Thursday 23 October | 5 – 11pm
This inaugural showcase presents the first selection of artists and makers currently featured across The Living Rooms. Guests will have the opportunity to meet the creatives behind the works, explore printed catalogues of their collections, and purchase selected pieces on display. RSVP via link in bio – entry limited.
Artists Talk: The Last Ones | The Good Grain Bakery | Thursday 23 October| 5pm
An evening of conversation around The Last Ones. @soni.side.up sits with @tetisulu , @mustbe_tj , and @afro_vertical to share the stories behind creating this body of work, from shooting only on film to the brutal climb up the mountain, and what it means to photograph Mt. Kenya for a generation living through endings.
RSVP currently at capacity. JOIN THE WAITLIST @papercafe.nbo & they’ll get in touch if a spot opens up.
The Middle Ground | Seven Artists | KOFISI Kaskazi (Spring Valley) | Opening 24 October | Until 11 December
The Seven is calling. Just the way they always do it @kofisicentres RSVP to [email protected]
19th Annual Affordable Art Show | Nairobi National Museum | Friday 24 – Sunday 26 October
It’s time again for the Kenya Museum Society’s Affordable Art Show. Come discover new artists, soak up the buzzing vibe and take home an original artwork. Over 400 artists will participate with over 800 artworks on show. A percentage of the sales goes to KMS toward funding projects at the Museums. Attend opening night where the best chance to snap up your favourite artworks will be accompanied by the fabulous music of Akoth Jumadi. Over the weekend there will be Live Art – watch the artists do their thing! – plus participatory activities: Dotillism, Fabric Art Taster, Henna Body Art & Children’s activities.
Get tickets on Kenya Buzz – note that this year all entry is ticketed.
KIND•HUMAN | Naomi Van Rampelberg | One Off Gallery | Opening Saturday 25 | Until 23 November
Van Rampelberg works with glass, ceramics, photography, collages, and knitting as well as paper, ink and pencil. Having lived abroad for many years, Naomi has returned to Nairobi, settling back into life at home with her dotted & circled creations. This self-taught artist has invested thousands of hours in her output. The result is an intensely beautiful and subtle show, worthy of any collection of contemporary art anywhere in the world, an impressive international product rooted in the soil of Africa.
Nairobi Sketch Tour: Ngong Hills | Saturday 25 October | 11am
The inspiring Ngong Jills. You might have been there a bunch of times. But have you been up in Ngong Hills while capturing beautiful scenery with water color? As always we are excited. As always no drawing experience is needed to participate. As always NST promise an intimate adventure for the heart and soul. Ticket link in bio @nairobisketchtour.
Journey Over a Million Footpaths | National Museums of Kenya | Talk every Saturday 2 – 4pm | Until 31 October
“Journey over a million footpaths” shows us what it means for Africa’s artifacts to return in physical form,
through an immersive digital experience. It creatively takes the audiences through a cinematic layering of sound, light, and color — African cultural objects becoming once more the protagonists of their own stories as was intended by their makers. The journey traverses imagined landscapes rooted in reality, evoking the memory of traditional Africa.
Entry: Museum entry fees apply
Abushariaa Ahmed | Tribal Gallery | Opening Friday 31 October, 6pm | Until Sunday 16 November
Abushariaa’s artistic style is influenced by the early Sudanese contemporary art movement and is known for his vibrant, mixed-media works often incorporating symbolic elements of his Nubian culture, often featuring intricate patterns and calligraphy.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
Another World Is Possible – Paul Onditi | Alliance Française | Until 26 October
Fresh from the Offenbach Academy of Art in Germany, the artist held his first exhibition, Another World is Possible, at the Alliance Française in 2012. Since then, Onditi has participated in the Biennales in Dakar and Venice and has just ended an exhibition at the AKKA Project in Venice. ‘Another World is Possible 2’ continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art, offering a poetic reflection on the fragile balance between humanity, technology, and the environment.
The Weight of the Unseen | Tibeb Sirak | Village Market Rooftop | Until 27 October
Tewasart and Patrons is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Nairobi by Ethiopian artist @tibeb.sirak Born in Jijiga in 2001, raised in Somalia, and now based in Addis Ababa, Sirak’s practice is rooted in his Somali heritage while speaking to the broader human experience. He draws on the visual traditions that shaped his upbringing—textiles, jewellery, and traditional art forms—as enduring sources of inspiration. “The textiles, the jewellery making, and traditional art forms that surround me have informed my visual language,” he reflects.
Monologue | Derrick Munene | Under the Swahili Tree, Karen | Until 31 October
This Nairobi-based visual artist is known for his striking paper collage compositions that explore themes of identity, societal expectations, and human emotion. His work intricately weaves together layered fragments, creating textured narratives that challenge perception and invite deeper reflection.
Reflections in Blue: An exhibition by cyanotype artist Elizabeth Ashamu Deng | Wasp & Sprout | Until 31 October
Reflections in Blue: An exhibition by cyanotype artist Elizabeth Ashamu Deng | Wasp & Sprout | Until 31 OctoberElizabeth’s works reinterpret African kanga and kitenge textiles in the indigo tones of cyanotype—fusing color, pattern, and text into pieces that feel both familiar and surprising, vibrant yet contemplative. Elizabeth is a self-taught, Nairobi-based cyanotype artist and founder of @Elewaart, a creative studio expanding knowledge of cyanotype in Kenya.
Home • House • Houses • Home | Chrispus Nyaanga | Ardhi Gallery | Until 31 October
Welcome to the intimate world of Chrispus Nyaanga where alleys become canvases and homes become stories. This exhibition invites you to look beyond corrugated walls and narrow streets—to witness the resilience, resourcefulness, and beauty of communities living as one.
The Brew or the Mug | Tevin Noel | Munyu Space | Until 1 November
Through abstract compositions and recurring motifs of trees—sometimes wind-swept and battered, other times standing in calm—the series becomes a metaphor for the human condition: rooted yet vulnerable, shaped yet enduring. Rather than offering answers, the works create space for viewers to encounter this tension for themselves—between what we inherit and what we create, between the vessel and what it holds.
Tevin Noel Ngunjiri (b. Nairobi, Kenya) is a self-taught visual artist currently based in Naivasha.
Jogoo Wa Shamba Wawika Mjini | Holmes à Court Gallery, Afrika House, Karen | Until 1 November
This exhibition is a celebration of 5 years of 199x and explores resilience, adaptation and hybridity; how the values and textures of countryside living survive, shift and reemerge in the chaos of the city. Read more in our article about the show. Viewing by appointment. Link in bio @afrika.housekenya. Poster Design: @_.sinatra
Looking Into the Mad Eye of History Without Blinking | Canon Griffin Rumanzi | NCAI | Until 2 November
A solo exhibition by Ugandan artist Canon Griffin Rumanzi, curated by Trevor Mukholi. The exhibition confronts the turbulent and fragmented narratives of Uganda’s past and their ongoing echoes in the present.
Through digital collage and archival intervention, Griffin layers colonial records, state symbols, family portraits, and everyday images to create a visual language of fracture, one that refuses easy containment or simplified stories. His work challenges us to look directly, without blinking, at the contradictions of history and the unresolved complexities that shape our collective memory.
Art Auction East Africa Preview Show | Circle Art Gallery | Until 4 November
The auction features modern and contemporary works, representing artists from 10 countries. Highlights include a 1961 painting by Tanzanian artist Francis Msangi. Also debuting are works by celebrated artist Sam Ntiro, Daudi E. S. Tingatinga (son of Edward Tingatinga), Pilkington Ssengendo, Mishek Masamvu, and Hussein Shariffe.
dreaming, emerging, witnessing | Josemarie Nyagah | Chez Mahmadi | Until 10 November
A solo exhibition featuring a diverse collection of ceramics, paintings & photographs.
SOS Art Kenya | Kibera Arts District | Through 16 November
A new annual large-scale exhibition sharing more than 300 works about Peace & Justice. This show will be the largest exhibition that 𝐇𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐊𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚 has presented & will be in spaces throughout the 𝐊𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭. Most artworks for sale. Call 0741443678 for information and directions.
My Space – Doreen Mandawa (Tanzania)
Echoes of Humanity | Red Hill Art Gallery | Until 2 November
Photography Exhibtion | Teti Sulu & Trevor Maingi | Good Grain Bakery | Until 13 November
In The Last Ones, @tetisulu & @mustbe_tj turn their gaze towards Mount Kenya’s shifting landscape, treating it not simply as a backdrop but as a subject in its own right. The photographs, shot on film and the result of a demanding climb, resist immediacy. They insist on slowness: the patient tones of silver grain, the pauses for exposure, the weight of waiting for the developed negative. Rather than tell a single story, this body of work places human presence in dialogue with geological time, inviting us to reflect on the weight of change, and the delicate balance between permanence and transformation. Opening night RSVP is closed. RSVP Link for Sunday Gallery Day in @papercafe.nbo bio. Exhibition on view until 13 November.
Guardians of Memory | Njogu Kuria | Banana Hill Art Gallery | Until 28 November
Explore the art of memory. Discover breathtaking sculptures crafted from rubber, vinyl, and metal—each piece tells a story of resilience, culture, and identity.
Open daily.
In the In Between | Leah Warii | Nairobi Gallery | Until 30 November
Museum rates apply