• ValDor Gallery Annex – BohemiAfrica

 Three visiting Czech artists, (two master glassblowers, one a glass painting professor in the Glass Institute in Novy Bor, Czech glass town), Marek Bartko, Emil Kovak & Sarka Zikmundova are in Kitengela demonstrating Czech techniques in a three week workshop at Kitengela Hot Glass. Arnout Visser, from the Netherlands, and Mikko Merikallio (Finland)will be also be present, Arnout developing his BushGlass products with both Czech and Kenyan skills, and Mikko pursuing his quest for reduction of lifetime energy costs.

Dubbed BohemiAfrica, the exhibition will showcase the results of this exciting first time collaboration between the Czech republic and Kenya. Hosted by Anselm Croze, director of Kitengela Hot Glass, this event is open to the public for free viewing during the working week.

• Dodhia Gallery - Mieke van Grinsven

 Mieke van Grinsven was born in the Netherlands in 1957 and studied handicrafts at the Arts Academy in Arnhem. She studied at a Carpentry Cooperative in Oosterbeek, Netherlands before coming to Africa in 1987 to manage a crafts workshop in rural Zambia, where she remained until 1992.  
After that she ran her own leather factory in Tanzania for eight years, until in 2003. Later she found the beautiful green serpentine stone in Tengenenge, Zimbabwe, the material in which she felt most able to express herself.  She sold her leather factory and decided to fully concentrate on sculpting. During the first years she was guided by the shapes of serpentine stone to create her 'smiling faces'. The move to sculpting torsos was never intended, but the first two bodies she made surprised her with their remarkable expressiveness, even without a heads.
She loves to work in her outdoor workshop and gallery in the acacia woods near Arusha, Tanzania, with the sounds of the birds and the village in the background. She lives with her husband and two children, and sculpting has become such a part of her life that a day without it isn't balanced.  Her work is inspired by the people of Africa.

• Rahimtulla Gallery - Umberto Signa

 
Umberto Signa (Palermo 1942) is an architect who has recently taken up his juvenile passion for painting and sculpture.  In the early seventies, at the beginning of his university studies in architecture, he was “affected” by the “syndrome of the white sheet”. This all happened at a time when in the 20th Century there was a clash between visual arts and architecture.
Only in the last four years the author has overcome his hesitation also thanks to the encouragement of a friend, who is also an architect and an artist. Therefore starting from where he had stopped years ago, but with more critical awareness, he starts his first studies in “honour” to futurists and purists who can be considered his first landmarks, together with Mr. Burri. Now we can say that the artist (a definition which Mr. Signa refuses ) has found his way. He works and experiments without caring to be always consistent or to belong to the one or the other movement.
 

• Photographers Gallery - Celebrating daily life
 Celebrating Daily Life - Photos from the Samosa Festival 2008 comes to RaMoMA. Teeku Patel and his photographer colleagues have captured some of the scenes which depict the commonalities in our cultures, which we take so much for granted. The mixed race families, the African woman rolling out a “chapati”, the glorious and mouth-watering colours of vegetables and spices and the multi-racial shoppers who are sampling the wares! The row of jikos and sufurias, each with a well-known and popular food item, makes us aware of the amazing  extent of sharing and enjoyment. The striking pose of the two young models unreservedly proclaims that beauty is not confined to race.