This is the third exhibition in the Manjano series and Judy Ogana, General Manager of the GoDown Arts Centre, tells me that they plan to continue it as an annual event and a firm fixture in the Nairobi Visual Arts Diary. Artists in the two categories are invited to submit works which are in turn judged and awarded cash prizes. This year the judges included Maggie Otieno (Sculptor and Arts Administrator), Fiona Fox (Curator, Tate Modern, UK) and Sandeep Desai (Art Collector).

172 works were submitted to be judged and according the judge's statement, 'awards were made on the following criteria: adherence and interpretation of the theme of 'Perceptions of Nairobi', originality and innovation, technical and expressive ability'. Additionally within the Student Category they endeavoured to recognize potential for artistic growth.

The display of the works feels almost overwhelming but James Muriuki has done a magnificent job of hanging so many works in such limited space.

In the professional category, the first prize has gone to Omosh Kinde for his work titled 'concrete jungle'. The piece is classic Kinde, with the whole plane covered with swarming masses of humanity and high rise buildings of the type seen on the Thika Road. He has departed a little from the norm in his use of colour by favouring black, shades of brown and maroon. He has also used a form of printing to apply all the windows on an unusually flat set of buildings.

Second prize was awarded to Michael Soi for his mixed media work titled 'Nairobi by night'. This is another work in his series depicting the working girls of Koinange Street in their skimpy attire being harassed and ogled simultaneously by our city 'askaris'. An immensely popular choice for its humour and wit.

The third prize was awarded jointly to Paul Onditi and to Dennis Muragori. Dennis Muragori displayed a very successful wood cut from his Matatu series titled 'Nairobi'(see his ongoing exhibition at Le Rustique Restaurant)and Paul Onditi continues to fascinate with his mystical images made with black paint and bleach. The piece which was awarded the prize is called 'Sinai misty mysteries' though I felt the show stopper was the piece titled 'Jijini Asubuhi' which Brussels Gallerist, Samantha Ripa Di Meana said she would be happy to hang in any European collection alongside the contemporary greats.

Two other notable entries were Noor Jefwa's 'Genesis: Public opinion', a gown made up of hand painted fabric squares carrying comments scrawled by passers-by. Also Gor Soudan deserves an honourable mention for his innovative and effective use of Cardboard in his piece 'smoking is strictly forbidden within these walls'. The other 'mention' goes to Patrick Mukabi with an interesting departure from his usual media of paint and canvas in favour of charcoal on paper in his piece 'Mama Mandazi'.

In the student category, the first prize went to a strong entry from Andrew Otieno with his five metal cut outs titled 'They became desperate for peace'. The poignant work portrays a young family each reaching to try to capture a dove. The second prize went to Dennis Rono Kipkurui for his 'Culturally locked city', which I found conceptually successful but slightly too literal. The third prize went to Angela Warau Karoro's sensitive pencil rendering of a child titled 'Endangered species story'.

All in all, the Manjano show offers a good overview of the range of work available in Nairobi. The prize money is underwritten by the GoDown and was implemented as an incentive to attract more entries at the second Manjano after the first attempt received a luke-warm response. This year the judges commented on the lack of entries from the more established names but I think this is consistent with competitions of this sort worldwide.

Sunday 26th February (noon to 6pm) sees the opening of Richard Kimathi's exhibition of recent works at One Off Contemporary Art Gallery. Kimathi is one of the most established artists in the region, known for his constant quest for change. This exhibition promises to deliver a whole new range of works from Kimathi's ongoing journey of the soul.

Continuing to 26th February at Village Market Exhibition Hall
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Carol Lees