Ehoodi Kichapi
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Ehoodi Kichapi (b. Jesse Ng’ang’a) is a self taught artist, who has been painting for the last fifteen years. His artistic life started in 2002, through doing caricatures as an instructor for the Kuruka Maisha art group. He had his first solo show in 2007 at the Alliance Francaise, in Nairobi, Kenya.
“His work is expressive and graphic: energetic line drawings, circles, marks, scribblings, figures, rudimentary images of animals, portraits, screaming faces and reaching hands create harsh and brutal images. Wild colourful acrylic paint is applied in thick sweeping strokes, creating abstract sections in his work that are just about colour and movement.” (From 2009 East African Art Biennale, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania). Since being represented by One Off Gallery, Kichapi has successfully exhibited in Cape Town with Nini Gallery and in Madrid with Gazzambo Gallery. Whilst he credits Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko and Jean-Michel Basquiat as his inspiration, he is fast achieving his own individual practice and a strong, often witty, original voice. |
Selection of works
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Exhibitions2019 - 'Documentation', Solo exhibition, One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
2018 - 'Contemplations', Solo exhibition, One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2016 - Solo exhibition, One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2014 - Solo exhibition, One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2013 - Solo exhibition, Ateliers mommen, Brussels 2012 - "Lamentations", One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya 2009 - "Elaborations", RaMoMA Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi, Kenya 2007 - Solo exhibition, Alliance Francaise, Nairobi, Kenya Six of Kichapi's paintings were chosen for a year long exhibition in Scandinavia. Kichapi's painting of the singer Ali Farka Toure has been taken to Italy for exhibition at the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples. |
Residencies2006 - Awarded the University of Kentucky’s Artist in Residence Program, a four month Ruth Hunt Wood Fellowship.
PressEastAfrican - 14-07-2018 - Now breaking free with a wicked wit
EastAfrican - 11-06-2016 - Nuclear physics and the science of art EastAfrican - 28-08-2014 - A show in the pincers of a coconut crab EastAfrican - 17-07-2014 - Angry city moved by falling star East African - 5-07-2013 - Relationships that give satisfaction EastAfrican - 13-04-2012 - Waiting for Jesse to explode... again Business Daily - 12-04-2012 - Ehoodi Charlatan or Kenyan Picasso? EastAfrican - 22-02-2010 - Meet the onion, it’s soft but can make you weep EastAfrican - 16-01-2010 - Master comic Ng’ang’a’s works for Scandinavia EastAfrican - 23-01-2009 - The revolution will be rerun... |
Ehoodi Kichapi is exclusively represented in East Africa by One Off