KENYAN ARTIST BRINGS THE FUTURE IN THE PAST IN THE CURRENT EXHIBITION
The artist has grown from using the human torso to express the interaction of the sub conscious with the environment to using abstract energies on canvas, sound and installation in his quest to speak about the blend between the human spirit and that which hovers in the immediate environment.
Jonathan Solanke Gathaara Fraser’s exhibition ‘The Past Will be Like the Future’ opened at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 11th 2025. The exhibition, which is his second solo exhibition displays Fraser’s latest pieces which can be studied not for their intellectual and artistic presence but for the energies they exude, evoke or instil into the observer. Fraser’s interest in exploring the forces around us has forever been what draws him into what he speaks, writes or paints.
The Past Will Be Like The Future exhibition is as extraordinary as the title. It walks one through painting, installation and sound trying to engage all the senses in what is perceived to be a journey through time and space. The exhibition is immersive tilting towards nature and the individual. It yearns to be understood superficially as an art and deeply as something that has life and looks into the past with the lens of the future. “I have been thinking with and about the body as a doorway to insight, history, practices of care, connection, violence, beauty and more and more.’ Jonathan Solanke observed.
The human body is central to Fraser’s work. In 2017 Fraser was part of group exhibition at the Artspace along Riverside drive, ‘Anatomy of Me.’ In Fraser’s work, which he used oil and charcoal, the subject’s torso is in a state of the music of life. The artist wants the audience to read emotions and feelings through body language. Though young and still in stages of becoming an acknowledged artist, Fraser’s work was detailed revealing the contortions of the body muscles that reveal pain, pleasure, sadness, anger among other feelings. The body contortions together with blood vessels exuding from the muscles would reveal how the human trunk draws energy from the environment and how it responds to it. In ‘Anatomy of Me,’ the artist was superficial using the aches through the human muscles to reveal the inner feelings without showing the face. His work then showed a remarkable artist whose journey was just beginning.
Currently, Fraser is on his second solo exhibition. He has grown from the human torso paintings of 2017 to music, installation and paintings which are more abstract than clear cut. What has remained constant is his love for the charcoal which is evident in his works. Charcoal represents his identity as an artist and the constant colour that has travelled throughout history from cave paintings to the canvas. It represents a constant that never changes and also that which is easily ignored for it is ever present.
Walking through the gallery, one has a feeling of being in a hall of history or a portal through which history, the present and the future merge. The art on the walls, the installation and sound create an immersive image or recreation or re-imagining. Fraser wants the audience to think of self, the stereotypes that have defined identity and how history places the self into the current philosophy of existence. He interrogates the position one assumes in the society and how different philosophies have ‘distorted’ the perception of being.
As humans, we have placed ourselves above everything. It is this position that dictates how we perceive our environment and interact with it. Within our own humanness, we have ladders of superiority defined by race, religion, wealth, level of education among others. These ladders also define how we blend into each other and our relationships.
Using paintings like Nakuruitis, drawn from history of a settler farm in the 1930s Nakuru, Fraser ponders through the value of life and the ladders that blind us from the suffering of those beneath us. The art exposes the stiffness of colonial laws that elevated the settler over native regardless of the importance of the native on the livelihood and strength of the settlers. When pedestals are created, pride blinds reason thus superiority creeps in. In ‘The Destroying Angel is Playing Double-Time’ the artist’s enigmatic side creeps in rendering a piece whose choice of colour and shapes show the dangers espoused in the perceived hierarchies we have created. Destroying angel may refer to a poisonous decomposer whose sole intent may be the history we cling to that may rapidly destroy our future. The past could be painful but if not well nurtured, may lead to destruction of the present.
In another set of paintings, specifically Our Lady of Sorrows, HeLa, Fraser brings to light two historical fates aligns them with the gift of eternal giving. Biblical Our Lady of Sorrows, refers specifically to Mary the mother of Jesus at her lowest moment- when she watched her Son on the cross. The son became the redeemer of the world, however, no one paid attention to the love and pain of the mother. On the other hand, HeLa, refers to the self-replicating cells harvested from African American Henrietta Lacks- a cervical cancer victim - in the middle of the 20thC USA. Whereas the cells have become a significant factor in medical research including cure for Polio and latest CoVID19, Henrietta has remained a footnote in all these achievements. For both women, their bodies were just a source of redemption despite the suffering they underwent.
These are just a few examples that point to Fraser’s extensive work on display. He has amassed a lot of creative ooze and knowledge that speaks not only to intellectualism but also keen understanding of the environment. As pointed out, the artist wants us to ponder and reflect on the dynamics of our existence which is more dependent than independent as we deem our lives to be. Fraser demands clearer understanding of the past, present and future, whether it is science, religion or politics, life revolves around a lot of energies that are beyond mere mortal beings.
Besides the current exhibition, Fraser had his first solo exhibition at the same venue in 2021 dubbed; ‘There’s a Time and a Place.’ He has also participated in various group exhibition such ‘Anatomy of Me’ (2017) Breaking Bread, (2025.) Fraser is a graduate of Fine Art from Kenyatta University and has had art residence in Kampala, Uganda in 2023. He is looking forward to another residence in Zurich facilitated by Pro Helvitia Swiss Art council this year.
The current exhibition at Circle Art runs until July 17th.
Comments
Post a Comment