About Carol Lees
Director and Curator of One Off

Kenyan born with grand parents who arrived in the country in 1925. Carol attained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American College in London in 1990. Following a short stint working in Nairobi for commercial Interior designers McNaughton West Design she first opened One Off gallery in 1994. 

In 2000 she co-founded and became the first director of RaMoMA (Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art).  During this time One Off was moth balled until it’s rebirth in 2009 after Carol resigned from RaMoMA. Initially a Ford Foundation funded project, RaMoMA became the leader in its field in East Africa.  

At the height of RaMoMA's activities, it hosted five new exhibitions each month, published a quarterly art magazine called Msanii, had a dedicated childrens’ wing with three full time teaching staff, had fourteen artists teaching art to children in Kenya’s leading referral hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital, held regular artists workshops and established an arts and crafts gift shop.

In the twenty year period that Carol has focused on the business of selling Kenyan art, she has:

• Curated in excess of 300 exhibitions 
• Organized an annual art fair which never featured works of less than 110 painters and sculptors
• In 2004 she jointly curated, with Judy Ogana, five exhibitions in New York (Brooklyn Public Library, Five Myles Gallery, Long Island University, Welancora Gallery, and Kentler International Drawing Space)
• February 2014 saw the first major exhibition of Kenya art supplied by One Off to the Gallery of African Art in Cork Street, London.

With the training of a commercial interior designer and 25 years of selling art in the region, Carol is uniquely placed to advise both corporate and private purchasers.  

---

About Kui Wachira
Gallery Manager at One Off

​Kui Wachira was born and raised in Nairobi Kenya.  She graduated in 2004 with a B.A in Media Arts from New Jersey City University (USA).  Her work experience in the Television and Film industry begun in 1999 as an intern at Ukweli Video Production and she has since worked on various sets in the USA and Kenya.

In 2012, Kui was the first administrator and a lecturer at Africa Digital Media Institute, ADMI (formerly Jamhuri Film and Television Academy, JFTA).  She grew the Institute from the first four students to over 50 students at the time of her hand over.  She moved on to focus her career in Visual Art Administration in 2015.

Kui's career as a Visual Arts Administrator begun at Kuona Trust Art Center and has since seen her work as the Gallery Manager at Circle Art Gallery and now at One Off Contemporary Art Gallery. Her expertise covers the management of artists, the gallery, exhibitions, auctions and art publication management.

As a writer, Kui is the author of Naughty Nick, a published children's book title.  She is currently working on her second book while contemplating expanding her writing to other genres.