House of Kuria exhibition celebrates one family's shared artistic journey

The Kuria family is bonded by a passion for art. House of Kuria is an exhibition that features sculpture and acrylic printmaking by Njogu Kuria, watercolour paintings by Merciana Anyango, Andrew Kuria with digital art and animation, and Joyce Kuria with watercolour and ink works.  

The exhibition runs at HOF Gallery in Kibera from July 4 to August 2.

Curated by Santana Sino, it transforms the gallery into a home-inspired setting, with curtains, household furnishings, and family photographs, and encourages visitors to experience the works as though they were walking through the artists' home.

Sino says the exhibition started while in a conversation with Njogu. He initially intended to curate a solo exhibition for him when he discovered that several members of the family were practising artists.

“I wanted to showcase Njogu’s work alone, but when he told me that his siblings and wife were all artists, the idea changed. It is a diverse artistic family who support each other,” he says.

Sino then developed the concept of transforming the gallery into the House of Kuria. He wants visitors to experience the exhibition as though they were entering the family's home. That is why there are curtains, television, mats, childhood portraits and different domestic elements that recreate a family setting.

The gallery layout was planned to create the experience of home. Njogu’s works introduce visitors to the exhibition, while Merciana’s, his wife's, curtains invite them into the house. He aimed for visitors to discover the family in their own way.

Merciana notes, “It is almost like opening a family photo album. It is rare to find a family where most members are practising artists. Around 2022, Njogu suggested that we should have a family exhibition since art is what unites us.”

While the exhibition revolves around family, every artist has a personal artistic voice.

"The common thread is family, but we didn't want to lose our individuality. The curator encouraged us to be authentic and not force our work into a particular direction," she says.

Her paintings are inspired by personal memories and everyday family life with watercolour as their medium.

One of the largest works, A Breath Away, portrays her young son reaching towards his great-grandmother, their hands almost touching.  It represents the passing down of values from one generation to another.

The piece was among the most demanding works she created.

"It was physically large, and I was still learning how to express myself more freely. It challenged me both technically and emotionally," she explains.

Other works include Master, a tribute to her grandmother's once-aggressive family dog that became affectionate, and Oh, No, which captures an interaction between the same dog and her young son.

The two pieces speak about how small moments we take for granted disappear very quickly, and she wanted to capture them before they fade away.

Merciana says that working on the exhibition introduced her to installation. Sino suggested that she incorporate sheer curtains into her presentation to immerse the exhibition in the idea of home.

Njogu explains that the exhibition represents them as a large artistic family and creates a foundation for something even bigger in the future.

He believes the exhibition highlights how one family can produce remarkably diverse artistic practices.

“Each of us has developed different skills over the years. Merciana works in textiles and painting; my brother Andrew is involved in animation, while I work across sculpture, painting and printmaking," Njogu says.

His contribution includes handmade vinyl prints alongside functional lamps constructed from scrap metal.

He wanted to show that sculpture can also be functional. The lamps illuminate the space while remaining works of art in themselves. They are objects I would happily have in my own home.

Having previously exhibited individually, Kuria says presenting together allows them to support one another while introducing audiences to their identities.

Joyce uses watercolours and ink on watercolour paper to explore themes of nostalgia and retrofuturism. The poster exhibition is her work, which tells the story of a tailor from the future who works with tools from the past.

“It is a reminder that no matter how advanced things become, some traditions stay alive through hands that keep practising them,” Joyce says.

Sino says that House of Kuria represents how the contemporary art scene is evolving.

"Artists today are becoming more willing to experiment and express themselves in different ways. This exhibition shows what can happen when creativity is nurtured within a family," he says.