INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Kaloki Nyamai, Untitled (Memories of a Father), 2022, acrylic, ink transfer, mixed media on sewn-together unstretched canvas and figures outlined by sewn thread, 98.50 x 98.50 in. Courtesy of Keijsers Koning. Photograph by Kevin Todora.

Kaloki Nyamai. Courtesy of the artist and Keijsers Koning.

Keijsers Koning scores with Moments I wished I had, Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai’s first solo exhibition in the US.

BY STEVE CARTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN TODORA

Although it’s still the eve of his first solo exhibition in this country, Nairobi-based multidisciplinary artist Kaloki Nyamai is no stranger to the Dallas art scene. Nyamai is repped here locally, (and exclusively, stateside), by Keijsers Koning, and the gallery presented his work at the Dallas Art Fair in 2021 and 2022. Significantly, on the latter occasion, the artist’s Untitled (laborer), 2022, was one of 10 works acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art through the Dallas Art Fair Foundation Acquisition Program, a major coup. No shortage of coups here, there’s also the fact that Nyamai’s work is currently on view at the 59th Venice Biennale; he’s one of only four native artists represented at the Kenyan Pavilion. And now, just around the corner, Kaloki Nyamai: Moments I wished I had opens at Keijsers Koning on August 27 and continues through October 1. As his inaugural solo exhibition in the US, it’s poised to be yet another coup for the artist, the gallery, collectors, critics, and cognoscenti alike. “It’s been quite a year,” gallerist Bart Keijsers Koning understates with a laugh.

Keijsers Koning was first introduced to Nyamai’s work by a friend who was visiting Kenya and sending the gallerist images of artworks he saw along his way. Keijsers Koning was immediately impressed and intrigued by Nyamai’s work, and he made contact with him shortly thereafter—rapport, and representation, ensued: “We just really hit it off,” he recalls.

On my recent visit to the gallery, I was gobsmacked by Nyamai’s Untitled (Memories of a Father), 2022, an epic acrylic painting that also involves ink transfer, mixed media, and rubber thread; the large-scale work is comprised of sewn-together segments of unstretched canvas, and the heavily layered impasto finish and coming-off-the-surface serpentine threads tease viewers in while enhancing the piece’s three-dimensionality. Keijsers Koning notes that Nyamai’s signature stitched-together, unstretched canvases really emphasize the textile, and they’re reminiscent of quilts and their resonances in American history. “That linkage to the African diaspora I find very important,” he says. “I like the movement, the way the canvas shapes and shifts. A lot of Kaloki’s work is based on the narrative of Kenyan history. There’s a lot of scars, a lot of tearing apart within society, and he feels that the sewing brings those stories together—sewing up the wounds, so to speak.”

Two of Nyamai’s major influences are his mother and grandmother; the former worked in fashion, and the latter was a musician, oral historian, and raconteur. He credits his mom with teaching him how to draw and encouraging his pursuit of art wholeheartedly. “She was always supportive,” he says. “Art was in the family.” For her part, his grandmother’s singing and storytelling were grist for his creative mill, and her recounting of their people’s history and traditions fired his imagination. “Back in the day she would tell me story, story, story, story,” he remembers fondly. “And I started questioning her about the past and how she used to live, her history… I wanted to understand how it came to be that I’m the way I am now. And I’ve come to realize that my work is based on the past, and the present, and the space in between.” The throughlines are clear in his work: his history, identity, family, his Kamba community. And though he’s half-a-world-away, there’s a striking universality glowing in his singular creative vision.

In a twist for the artist, the body of works comprising Moments I wished I had explores the terra incognita of his strained relationship with his distant father. As in the aforementioned Untitled (Memories of a Father), there’s a quietly mythic, unrequited aspect to the yearnings embodied in the paintings, each a study in “might’ve been,” not “once upon a time.” Nyamai explains, “The show will be creating a moment that was never there, a moment that never existed. Even though my dad is still alive, and we talk once in a while, these are moments that I wish I had with my father.” The personal poignancy of the series reflects the past and projects the present, since the artist is himself the father of a five-year-old son, and time together is a precious commodity. “When I look deeply, I realize that now, with me having my son, moments are very important to me, all the things I wish I’d shared with my father.”

The stars seem to be aligning for Nyamai, and he recognizes this as an exciting moment. “It’s been a long journey, and things are happening,” he assesses with a laugh. “It’s reached a point where I was like, ‘whoa, whoa,’ but then I realized things don’t just happen—it’s probably the right time for them to happen…” P

Above: Kaloki Nyamai, Untitled (School with Girl standing on Globe), 2021, acrylic, textile, and sewing thread on canvas, 38.5 x 54.33 in. Courtesy of Keijsers Koning. Photograph by Kevin Todora; below: Kaloki Nyamai, Untitled (Female Bather), 2022, acrylic, mixed media, and sewn outline, 84 x 77.50 in., 88.50 x 82 in. framed. Courtesy of Keijsers Koning. Photography by Kevin Todora.