Now in its 12th year, the GoDown Arts Centre’s Manjano Exhibition is a staple of the Nairobi County arts calendar. The exhibition and competition offer both student and established artists an opportunity to showcase and sell their work and gain a better sense of the visual arts sector and market. Since its inception, Manjano has received close to 2000 artist submissions from across the county. As always, our panel of judges consists of three independent sector experts who are tasked with selecting artwork based on criterion they agree on.
Due to the Covid restrictions and second lock down in the county this year, Manjano is being presented primarily as an online exhibition. We also had an opportunity to launch a scaled-down physical exhibition featuring the work of selected established artists at Alliance Française-Nairobi. That exhibition ran until Saturday May 1st 2021.
The arts sector, much like every other, has been propelled deeper into the digital space with exhibitions and conversations around art taking place online. Manjano 2021 is no exception. The shift has led our organisation to make significant changes to how we show work, collect data, hold discussions about the sector and facilitate the sale of artwork. The exhibition has always drawn audiences from diverse creative backgrounds – from art novices to more seasoned art lovers and collectors. One significant outcome of the transition online is that artists now have an opportunity to show their work to a much larger audience, both local and international.
Manjano continues to offer the new artists an opportunity to benchmark their work against the output of their established counterparts regarding conceptualisation, execution, quality, presentation, and pricing. We celebrate the women and men who submitted their work and congratulate those whose work has been selected to feature in this year’s exhibition.
We are proud to present to you Manjano 2021, Online Edition!
More About Manjano
“Nairobi – City in The Sun”
The exhibition theme is ‘Nairobi’. Artists may use painting, sculpting, mixed media and so on, to explore diverse expressions of their understanding and experience of the city and county.
The exhibition name “Manjano” is a Kiswahili for the colour Yellow, a reflection of the city’s moniker ‘The City in the Sun’.
Work submitted must be ‘fresh’, created in the last 12 months.
The exhibition consists of two special categories, the Student Artist and Practicing Artist categories, each attracting cash prizes for the top three winners.
The exhibition pieces are on sale and all proceeds go to the artists. The GoDown takes no commission.
If you are interested in purchasing a piece, get in touch with us on info@thegodown.org and we will put you in touch with the artist.
