Nairobi's Entrepreneurial Artists

With increasing urbanisation, urban spaces, more so than rural settings, become places of gathering and exchange. And it is in this setting that opportunities and challenges arise, in which access to capital is contested in a vibrant atmosphere. Artists in particular, using their ingenuity and entrepreneurial skills, are able to take advantage of these environments. At the same time they create influential and exciting artworks, which are characterised by their urban environment and sources of patronage. In Nairobi the creative entrepreneurial activities of many artists are evident everywhere.

Words and Pictures

Moving through the streets and suburbs of Nairobi one is sure to encounter the various images and texts that are sign-writing - the need for inexpensive commercial signs and billboards led to the emergence of artists specialising in painting and lettering. This is true for many other African countries, which see their butchers, barbers, bars, music and film outlets as well as many other commercial spaces displaying the art of sign-writers. Sign-writers often work to a set criteria and their work is more than often aimed towards the artist’s local populace.

Sign-writers are firmly situated in the informal sector, on the street, and within a matrix of entrepreneurial activity. The art of sign-writers is delivered in a variety of styles depicting an enormous range of imagery from political figures, global and local celebrities, depictions of tradition, folk tales and myths, sport teams and brands. This scope of imagery and styles demonstrates the encounter between modern life, commodity, form and artistic imagination.

Machine-printed posters advertising major companies and their goods are becoming more widely used in Nairobi. Many small businesses, however, still promote themselves largely by means of hand-painted signs, despite the threat from new digital technology. While sign painting is still very much alive in Nairobi, if it were to fade out it would surely have an impact on contemporary art in Nairobi. The ubiquity of the art is of great significance to the whole populace- for many, perhaps this is the most common form of art witnessed in their environment. For many artists, their whole evolution has been influenced by this exposure to commercial art.

Joseph Bertiers, an artist from Nairobi, began his artistic career in his teens by painting signs. He trained at the ‘YMCA Craft Training Centre’, in commercial art. Joseph Bertiers eventually left the world of commercial art, feeling frustrated by the limitations of expression.  He has since become an award-winning Kenyan visual artist, portraying images of global events and political satire, and has held worldwide exhibitions. Like Bertiers, many other successful Kenyan contemporary artists were once sign-writers.

A culture in motion

In Nairobi, art is not only restricted to static surfaces; painted vehicles are also popular. It is here a localised form of design incorporating the global can be seen. The painted vehicles, matatu (passenger minibuses) are the prime movers in a bustling city, with 70% of Nairobi residents dependant on matatu for daily transportation. Matatu art initially took off in the early nineties. However since then, they have become highly individualised, with paint jobs ranging from an assortment of colours and designs to airbrushed celebrities and musicians, whilst incorporating a differing degree of expressive text. Their designs are icons of modernity and have become moving representations of urban culture.

Workshops employ young artists and graphic designers to decorate the vehicles. Similar to some sign-writers, they lift ideas and images from popular culture, which they then post on matatu bodies as a marketing strategy. It has been known that young men and women have refused to board a matatu that is not extravagantly decorated.

Occupying a distinctly visible space, matatu are instrumental in shaping the trends of Nairobi’s youth culture. However, recent regulations for matatu required their owners to replace their colourful designs with a six-inch yellow band all round the vehicle and to be painted a uniform colour. This has impacted designs on matatu. However many matatu owners have not followed these rules, particularly upon less policed routes. The colourful matatus can still be seen, though not in the quantity they once were.

Influential Tourists

A large number of visitors pass through Nairobi each year, providing patronage for artists selling their work. Not all artists, however, specifically create work aimed at this market. For those entrepreneurial artists who do, their art becomes a means of income. These arts are sold all over Nairobi, from open air tourist markets, curio shops and street sellers to impromptu stalls along the street. Africans also occasionally buy these works. While there are high-quality pieces of this art to be found; its commercialisation has lowered its aesthetic standard. Subjects and styles that have proved commercially successful are usually repeated. Many are quickly fashioned for quantity rather than quality.

There are skilled artists who sell their work to toursits, the most prevalent being the Akamba and Abagusii people. And without Western patronage this art would not exist. While Western critics often disregard this work classifying it as the lowest of the low and describe it as “tourist art”, for many Kenyan artists this is an option of enterprise which allows them to sate their creative desires. This results in an interesting dialogue of communication: the artists create contrived representations of their own culture and traditions while the consumer purchases something they see as ‘authentic’ and ‘exotic’.

For those who rarely, if at all, visit art galleries and exhibitions, this constant exposure is one which can often shape and influence their own perceptions and developments of contemporary Kenyan art. For the artists involved, this ‘world’ can provide a platform for artistic development and mastering techniques and skills, which in turn may lead them to pursue their own artistic endeavours, as seen with Joseph Bertiers.

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