Evans Omondi ‘Omosh Kindeh’ (Kenyan, 1980-2015)
Untitled, circa 2014
Signed ‘Omosh Kindeh’ (middle right)
Acrylic on vinyl sheet
200 x 300 cm
Ksh 400,000-800,000
(US$ 3,750-7,500)
Sold Ksh 962,680
Provenance: from the artist’s estate
100% of the sale (inclusive of Circle’s commission) will go to the family of the late artist.
The son of a career officer in the Kenya Army, Omosh Kindeh joined Kuona Trust Centre for Visual Arts in the late 1990s, straight out of Moi Forces High School. At Kuona he studied sculpting under older artists such as Elijah Ogira and Wanjohi Nyamu and also painted with Ngene Mwaura. Alongside his rigorous studio practice Kindeh fostered long and close collaborative relationships with numerous artists.
At their shared Love Shack studio, Kindeh and his fellow artist Edward ‘Chiselhands’ Okero formulated and produced the landmark sculpture exhibitions Winter Warmer I at Kuona Trust Gallery in 2009 and its sequel Winter Warmer II. These shows marked a resurgence of contemporary sculpture, with participation from Peter Walala, Dennis Muraguri, Kepha Mosoti, Kota Otieno and Peter Kenyanya Oendo.
Kindeh’s long running painting series of urban working class housing estates won the Manjano Visual Art Competition in 2013, with the diptych Concrete Jungle, and earned him another name; ‘Urban Planner’. Later on, from 2014 to 2015, he worked with Kibera-based collectives Maasai Mbili and the Jolly Boys Kibera Social Club, where he filmed from the balcony hours of day and night events occurring in Kibera, and the visible Nairobi Southlands landscape beyond. These films were often shown at his studio on the Samsung camera on which they were shot.
Kindeh worked on this large-scale painting of Kayole, Eastlands for a long time during this period.
He took part in numerous workshops and residencies at home and abroad, including the Probe lecture series and workshops held in Nairobi in 2008.
By Gor Soudan, artist and friend