Kaloki Nyamai
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
Installation view, Kaloki Nyamai, Twe Vaa, James Cohan, 48 Walker Street, New York, NY, March 28 - May 4, 2024
KALOKI NYAMAI
Isyo kwo sya thela? I & II (Is the food over?), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (each panel)
200 x 200 cm
Diptych
JCG16118
KALOKI NYAMAI
Nduisa umbita I & II (You cannot call me), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (each panel)
200 x 200 cm
Diptych
JCG16120
KALOKI NYAMAI
Wi semba wendete ku? (Where are you running to?), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16122
KALOKI NYAMAI
Nilika kiwuni ona mwalea I (I will swim even if you refuse), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16123
KALOKI NYAMAI
Wenda kyao indi? (What is it that you want?), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16125
KALOKI NYAMAI
Nikita ukuna njaro (I am here minding my business), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16127
KALOKI NYAMAI
Ula wosiee ngoo yakwa II (The one who stole my heart), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16126
KALOKI NYAMAI
Ithi nitwamina (We have finished), 2024
Mixed media, acrylic, collage stitching on canvas
78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in.
200 x 200 cm
JCG16121
James Cohan is pleased to present Twe Vaa, an exhibition of mixed media paintings by Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai, on view from March 28 through May 4, 2024, at 48 Walker Street. This marks the artist’s New York debut and first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Twe Vaa means “We are here" in the artist’s ancestral language of Kikamba. The phrase signifies a declaration of presence, a reclamation of a collective agency. Nyamai questions where it is that society has landed in turbulent times. In the ten intricately layered paintings from Nyamai’s ongoing series Dining in Chaos, he draws inspiration from life in Nairobi, weaving collective memories that emerge and recede from legibility. His paintings are composites of multiple canvases and materials, literally stitching together the fabric of a community scarred by the legacy of colonization.
In each work, Nyamai juxtaposes news accounts of political unrest with depictions of people at leisure, allowing multiple narratives to unfold simultaneously. He photo-transfers newsprint and images capturing pivotal and often violent moments in Kenyan history and other parts of Africa directly onto the surface of his paintings; binding the past and the present. These figures fade in and out of view, much like a memory, revealing themselves through layers of paper and paint.
