The Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) presents Notes on Friendship – Breaking Bread in partnership with the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), Accra, Ghana. This exhibition aims to bridge cultural dialogues between West and East Africa. It serves as a cross-cultural platform for kinship, hospitality, and shared cultural resonance between the two regions.
This expansive exhibition features 21 artists from both regions, exploring contemporary ideas of today’s dynamic contemporary landscape. Through a blend of both contemporary and traditional works, Breaking Bread becomes a gesture, that opens conversations on shared cultural and contemporary roots from the two regions.
The film alludes to the importance of shared cross-cultural narratives across African borders. It revisits the art of hosting—and being hosted in traditional and contemporary landscapes. Through breaking bread, it creates an atmosphere where audiences can engage with the ever-evolving cultural, social, economic, and political landscapes of Ghana and Kenya. By identifying shared narratives of communal identity, history, and change, it strengthens connections across these dynamic societies
The exhibition covers three broad thematic sections: stories, memory and lineage, and spirituality. It presents a diverse range of artworks that draw from traditional mythology, archival imagery, and contemporary themes. The artists, span across multiple generations, working in traditional and contemporary media ie; painting, sculpture, film, and video. With this, they explore the complexities of self and time, in relation to their own shared experiences and cultural roots. In this way, the exhibition space becomes a welcoming harbor for young creatives across both regions.
The featured artists include Jojo Abdallah, Dennis Muraguri, Beatrice Wanjiku, Agnes Waruguru, Priscilla Kennedy, Selasi Awusi Sosu, Maame Adjoa Ohemeng, Galle Winston Kofi Dawson, Jonathan Gathara Solanke Fraser, Eric Gyamfi, Kelvin Haizel, Gideon Asmah, Leonard Atawugweh Kubaloe, Sidney Mang’ong’o, Taabu Munyoki, Wairimũ Nduba, nd00ta, Daniel Arnan Quarshie, Robin Riskin, Florence Wangui, Maame Araba Baboa Opoku , and Ngugi Waweru.
The exhibitions opens on Tuesday the 29th of April and will run till the 27th of July. Artists and audiences can expect a dynamic immersion into hosting as a central theme of political gesture.
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