Skin as a Noun, as a Verb, is a retrospection of the ongoing process of personal transformation.
The exhibiting artist Tevin Noel Ngunjiri explores its three phases that he titles deep introspection, attempts at actual change, and taking form.
The exhibition, which opened at the Under the Swahili Restaurant on August 15, is aesthetically calming as it is layered.
The paintings show new plants sprouting, as seen in a piece labelled Pruned Shoots. Some then emerge from the earth, as depicted in Rugged, and in Skin as a Verb, a tree has taken a sturdy shape.
In capturing the introspection phase, his subjects appear in a ghostlike softness, as if they are fading away. “It represents a loss of clarity and that difficult period of looking inward—honestly assessing our faults and shortcomings when clarity feels lost,” he explains.
Attempts at actual change are shown through pieces of deep brown and purple colours with indefinite forms in reference to the discomfort and uncertainty of change. For taking form showcase, the trees grow to their fullness.
He describes that each one of the pieces is a reflection of the periods of his life when he craved change.
He relied on simplified forms, a palette of choice colours, and a fluid working process.
“Working in a free-flowing way helps me access the subconscious; I feel working logically strips the work of its emotional honesty,” he says.
However, in the making of this exhibition, the self-taught artist encountered uncertainty and self-doubt around how the audience would receive the show. For him, facing those vulnerabilities turned out to be a part of the process, and it allowed him to stay on course and true to his art.
He hopes that the body of work sparks contemplation about change and that viewers see themselves mirrored in it.
“On a societal level, we live in a time that often demands quick reinvention and performance of identity. My work slows that down. It acknowledges that transformation is vulnerable, nonlinear, and deeply personal,” he says.
“Skin as what we carry, and skin as what we shed. The phrasing itself has rhythm, which to me felt essential in setting the tone for the exhibition. The shift in grammar reflects the very shifts in identity and renewal,” he says.
The process of creating this exhibition has taught Ngunjiri that selfhood isn’t fixed or something that one arrives at once and for all, but it’s continuously negotiating.
Curated by Linda Chao Mbugua of Sena Art Gallery, the exhibition is on view until September 30.
Photos: Courtesy