EVENTS & OPENINGS
In This Valley of Dying Stars | Jess Atieno | The African Arts Trust | Opening Friday 12 June,6pm | Until 16 August
In This Valley of Dying Stars reveals how we are haunted not only by the lingering weight of the past, but also by futures that were once imagined and never realized. At the heart of the exhibition lies Jess Atieno´s investigation of brutalist architecture in the context of post-independence Africa. Once envisioned as monuments to liberation, progress, and collective futurity, these structures now persist as weathered remnants — spectral forms suspended between utopian aspiration and historical rupture.
Exhibition curated by Niklas Obermann.
Artist Talk: Nahom Teklehaimanot & Rasto Cyprian | Circle Art Gallery | Saturday 13 June, 2 – 4pm
A conversation with artists Nahom Teklehaimanot and Rasto Cyprian. Presented on the occasion of their current solo exhibitions with us, the discussion will explore their respective practices and the works on view at the gallery.
Imaginative Drawing Workshop | Coordinated by Meshack Okeyo | Annex Gallery | Saturday 13 June | 2 – 5pm
A workshop in conjunction with the exhibition “Aftermath” at Annex Gallery in the Kibera Arts District. For more info reach out to Santana: 0728 46 3822. All welcome, limited spaces.
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
After the Curtain Falls | Lincoln Mwangi | Gravitart Gallery | By appointment
Lincoln’s body of work is immersed in symbolism. The figures, objects, animals, landscapes, and elemental forms inhabiting the paintings behave almost like actors upon a stage, each embodying ideas, forces, and states of being.
Contact Gravitart to arrange viewing.
The Art of Connection: Part 2 – The Invisible City | Curated by Myrna Art Direction @ Hyatt Regency | June – August
In collaboration with Hyatt Hotels Westlands Nairobi, the exhibition ‘The Art of Connection’ unfolds across five floors as a living exhibition curated by Myrna (Art Direction). Bringing together contemporary artists and designers the exhibition explores art as a fluid space of encounter, movement, and exchange. New works will be introduced throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Artists and designers are invited to submit their work and join the exhibition. Portfolios (PDF) can be submitted via WhatsApp to +254 115 784 649.
Seasons | Abena Mkawasi Nkrumah | Spinner’s Web | Until 14 June
Handled By Humans | Magala Emmanuel Eperu & Africa Collect Textiles | Alliance Française | Until 21 June
An immersive installation inspired by the double helix, the fundamental genetic structure shared by all human beings. DNA is the common code. It binds CEOs and cotton farmers, garment workers and consumers, waste pickers and designers. The helix becomes an ethical metaphor showing we are structurally interconnected beyond hierarchy, geography and economics.
Tides of Presence | Eugene Miera & Mutune Waweru | Nobody Owns Me, Kibera Arts District | Until 21 June
Aftermath | Meshack Okeyo | Annex Gallery, Kibera Arts District | Until 21 June
Territories of Becoming | Waleed Mohammed, Cynthia Nyakiro & Mugabo Baritegera | HoF Gallery, Kibera Arts District | Until 21 June
Where Art Meets Nature | Maitreyee Roy | Chez Mahmadi | Until 23 June
A collection that bridges diverse themes—from striking movement and vibrant use of color to deeply quiet, intimate moments.
Adeline E Amador | Embassy of Peru | Until 26 June
a remarkable collection of documentary photographs captured 46 years ago by artist Jeannine Ferrand in the town of El Carmen, Chincha, portraying the life and cultural legacy of the late Amador Ballumbrosio and his wife Adelina. This exhibition is being showcased in Nairobi for the very first time.
Every Monday, Wednesday & Friday, 2 – 5pm
Pre-register via the QR code.
Change of Time| Mutisya Kasamba | Nairobi National Museum, Creativity Gallery | Until 30 June
An exhibition of works exploring the rhythm of time memory and transformation.
8:30am – 5:00pm daily | Normal museum rates apply.
Dancing Lights | Edison Mugalu | Banana Hill Gallery | Until 2 July
Edison Mugalu is a self-taught Ugandan expressionist painter born and raised in Kayunga. He has developed his own distinctive style using acrylics, collage and African fabric to give an eye-catching visual creativity in form of paintings.
Colour Untamed | Katie Simpson | KitenGallery, Nani’s Wonderland, Kitengela Glass | Until 9 July
Colour Untamed brings that lifelong conversation into full focus. Her paintings are ethereal explorations of the earth’s fragility and wildlife’s vulnerability, attempts to catch fleeting moments before they vanish, subjects held briefly in abstracted, luminous space.  There is urgency in that impulse. Kenya’s wild places are changing, and Simpson paints in response – not with polemic, but with something more tender and more lasting.
A Glimmery Breath of Light | Red Hill Art Gallery | Open 11am – 5pm
There is something familiar, yet quietly shifting beneath the surface. Like the changing weather of the rainy season, his presence evident in his paintings reveal moments of light glimpses of joy breaking through something more introspective. Gor is an artist-thinker, working in solitude, committed to expressing his cognitive spirit with his visual intelligence.
Quilting Light | Elizabeth Ashamu Deng | Paper Cafe X The Good Grain | Until 1 August
In this body of work, Elizabeth pushes cyanotype beyond a single process. She uses toning to shift its characteristic blues into browns, draws on photographic, hand-drawn, and contact-print methods, and sometimes adds gold pen, gold leaf, watercolour, and stitching to create richly textured compositions.. Free and open to all
Viewing Hours; Tuesday to Saturday, 8 am to 4 pm.
Latest Iterations | Gallery & Associate Artists | One Off Gallery | Until 21 June
An impressive show of recent work from both our Gallery Artists and selected Associate Artists.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Scar—Who Put You Where You Are? | Nahom Teklehaimanot | Circle Art Gallery | Until 4 July
This is the first solo exhibition for Nahom Teklehaimanot, an Eritrean visual artist whose work explores migration, memory, displacement, and the fragile architecture of belonging. Working primarily with airbrush and collage, Teklehaimanot creates layered, atmospheric compositions that navigate the emotional terrain between homeland and exile. Read more about Teklehaimanot’s show in our article.
Ephemerals | Rasto Cyprian | Circle Art Gallery | Until 4 July
Ephemerals is Circle’s first solo exhibition for Rasto Cyprian, a Nairobi-based mixed media artist whose practice explores process, material experimentation, and the atmosphere of everyday life.
Tabula Rasa | Peterson Kamwathi | NCAI | Until 23 August
Peterson Kamwathi’s first major institutional solo exhibition and his first such exhibition in Nairobi. Spanning drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video, and a site-specific wall drawing, the exhibition centres drawing as a way of thinking, a way of looking that is never passive. Through layered images, shifting between clarity and obscurity, Kamwathi questions what is remembered, what is erased, and who decides. The everyday becomes monumental; the overlooked, charged with history. In this exhibition, Kamwathi offers something more valuable than resolution: a set of images precise enough to slow us down, and open enough to let us look again.
A featured work By @altayeb_morhal, from the opening collection at Nubian Art Gallery
Opening Collection | Nubian Art Gallery (Stellato Mall) | Ongoing
The newest gallery in town, championing Sudanese art/artists and raising funds to support communities in Sudan affected by crisis, uplift children, and empower artists back home. Walk-ins are welcome, and private viewings can be arranged by appointment.
Hours: Mon – Thurs & Saturday 12-8pm | Friday & Sunday 2 – 9pm
Wahenga Wa Sanaa | Nairobi National Museum | Until 2027
Wahenga wa Sanaa: Tracing two centuries of artistic legacy 1800 – 1980
Wahenga wa Sanaa brings the NMK collection into public view, tracing powerful themes of cultural identity, spirituality, history and politics, nature and environment, and the growth of formal art training and supporting institutions. The exhibition honours the Wahenga—the wise ancestors and cultural forebearers whose creativity laid the foundation for generations of artists. As we create art today, we walk in their footsteps and continue to build on their enduring legacy. The exhibition is funded by the Kenya Museum Society. Read more about the exhibition in our article.