The Ardhi Gallery has opened its digital exhibition, Her Wellness, Her World, featuring over 150 artworks celebrating women.
The exhibition, which launched on International Women’s Day on March 8, brings together 19 female artists and the Kwa Watu Collective.
Hosted on the Ardhi Gallery Online Marketplace, the ongoing showcase highlights women contributing to the art industry and explores themes of identity, wellbeing, resilience, and personal expression.
The exhibition is curated by Ardhi Gallery founder Christine Oguna and David Kihumba.
Gemini Vaghela is exhibiting 21 artworks. If Dreams is a charcoal and soft pastel on canvas, showing a woman extending her arms outward in a gesture of freedom.
Seraphic II is a mixed-media piece on recycled paper that depicts colourful flowers in bloom.
Echo IV is an acrylic on canvas work with patterned, rough textures. Thoughts of Eternity shows a woman gracefully looking up at the sky, also rendered in charcoal and soft pastel on canvas.
Vaghela selects her medium depending on the message she wants to convey. While she primarily works with acrylic on canvas for this series, she also experiments with recycled paper for environmentally themed works.
Anne Mwiti’s Scent of Bloom highlights the strength and beauty of African women through floral imagery.
Anisa of the Sunflowers uses women as subjects to explore spirituality and intuition. In Goddess of the Moon, she creates an African version of the lunar goddess, inspired by Yemaya, the Yoruba goddess of the sea.
In Metamorphosis, a woman’s lips are seen through a motorcycle mirror with a butterfly perched on it, symbolising growth. Anisa says digital exhibitions give her more opportunities to showcase her work and grow her audience.
In February, Ardhi Gallery launched its online marketplace to expand opportunities for African artists and collectors at no cost.
“Over the past four years since Ardhi Gallery was founded, we have seen an incredible surge of artistic talent emerging across the region. But the number of gallery walls has not kept pace,” says Oguna.
She adds that the online marketplace allows artists to gain visibility, reach collectors, and grow their practice beyond the limits of physical space.