Lot 19

Kamal Shah (Kenyan, born 1953)
Young Couple, 1997
Signed ‘’97 Kamal Shah’ (upper right)
Acrylic on canvas
61 x 51 cm
Ksh 250,000 – 300,000
(US$) 2,450 – 2,900
Provenance: direct from the artist

Sold Ksh 258,280

Born in Kenya, Kamal Shah studied English Literature and Fine Art followed by a postgraduate diploma in Textile Design at Leeds University in the UK. In the early 1980s Shah was curator at the Rowland Ward Gallery in Nairobi, and a founding member and art-director of Kichaka, a multimedia workshop specialising in the printing of avant-garde African textiles. Since the mid-nineties, when Shah became a full-time artist, his paintings and mixed media works have drawn on his African, Asian and European upbringing, using motifs and references from across these cultures, often creating work that is spiritual in content or quality.

Shah is a renowned and popular artist in Nairobi; he has exhibited regularly in Nairobi, Copenhagen, Mumbai, Goa and London, including a group show entitled Sanctuary, Home Away, The Common Ground at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University, London, in 2014. He undertakes many commissions in Kenya and his work can be found in a number of corporate collections, such as Commercial Bank of Africa and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.