Lasts days to see this landmark exhibition which brings the works of Kenyan Michael Armitage and Austrian Maria Lassnig to a Nairobi Gallery for the first time, joined by renowned Kenyan artist Chelenge Van Rampelberg, presenting cross continental affinities in artistic languages.
The exhibition @ncai254 closes 5 April 2026.
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Words @sarahluddywrites
Rights to all works in images belong to the artists:
1. Lassnig - Head Study with 1 Glass & Van Rampelberg - Labour of Love
2. Exhibition title board at NCAI
3 & 4 Armitage - Untitled studies (2012-2025)
5. Lassnig - Self Portrait As a Camera/Self Portrait As a 16mm Eumig
6. Van Rampelberg - The Man II
7. Armitage - Ol Ngoroi Rock
Photos of images in situ at NCAI by @sarahluddywrites@michael_armitage_studio@chelengevan@maria_lassnig_foundation
After showing at Kunsthaus Bregenz in the summer of 2025, the exhibition 'Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg' arrives in Nairobi, and the conversation shifts.
Here, themes of the body, vulnerability, memory, and belonging feel immediate and personal. In a city where histories, cultures, and identities are constantly meeting and evolving, the works take on new meaning.
For many visitors, it feels different seeing this exhibition here. Armitage’s Kenyan roots, the first presentation of his and Lassnig’s work in the city, and Chelenge Van Rampelberg’s practice developed on the outskirts of Nairobi bring the conversation closer to home.
Oliver, a visitor to the gallery, shared:
"Seeing these works in Nairobi makes it feel personal, like the exhibition is speaking directly to us."
That’s what Nairobi does. It doesn’t just host the exhibition, it adds its own voice.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria for European and International Affairs, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
Come see how these three artistic voices meet each other and the city. Visit the exhibition currently showing at NCAI and join in the conversations!
Slide 1 & 4
Images from the opening reception of ‘Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg’ at NCAI
📸 by Ammar Suleiman
Slide 2 & 3
Installation view of ‘Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg’.
📸 by Kaniz Sheikh
Sentient Creature is an inaugural presentation of the artist Chelenge Van Rampelberg (b.1961, Kericho, Kenya) in Belgium, of an unexhibited series of sculpture & woodblock prints subsequent to her renowned 'Gorillas on my Mind' (2013) solo exploring human emotions & those of other creatures. The series was created in 2014 when she first moved into her land on the edge of The Nairobi National Park, making kin with a species she has not seen in real life. She is one of Kenya's prominent woman sculptors and works in sculpture, painting, and printmaking.
Her practice is chronicled by personal experiences reflecting on life's circumstances and more broadly on human behaviour, whose method of enquiry is situated in visionary, womanist, animist & intersectional perspectives that are read in connection to the work of biologist and science historian Donna Haraway's 'Primate Visions' (1989) and 'Simians, Cyborgs and Women -The Reinvention of Nature'(1991).
While parallels can be drawn between her depiction of the gorilla to the employment of the gorilla mask by the Guerilla Girls as their contemporary with a career starting in 1984, her alternative use of the 'mask' blurs the boundaries between human and animal. Exploring emotions from the playful to the melancholic, the artist states, "the animals are not always animals" continuously reflecting on the maternal figure to social structures.
The residency moment reflects on how African women artists have engaged with nonhuman primates in art history by shaping it whose discourse remains largely unwritten from the 20th to 21st century. While the naturalist aesthetic is abandoned, interspecies communion is suggested. Furthermore, we question how can we address the notion of the 'human animal' to explore how different artists have subverted the dehumanizing rhetoric and reclaimed the animal through an aesthetics of liberation? Through Chelenge's primate visions, the possibility of animals saving us arises as a psychoanalytic exercise in art to delve into the unconscious mind.
@chelengevan curated by Michelle Mlati
@thegreencorridor.brussels open doors from 4-18 April by appointment on weekdays and 2 to 6pm on weekends.
Installation view of 'Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg' an exhibition bringing together three artistic voices that explore the human body not simply as something seen—but as something lived: a site of emotion, vulnerability, and connection.
First presented at Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2025, it is now on view at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute—marking the first time works by Armitage and Lassnig are shown in Nairobi.
🗓 On view until Sunday, 5 April 2026
📍 3rd Floor, Rosslyn Riviera Mall
🎟 Entry: FREE
Presented in partnership with Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria for European and International Affairs, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
📸 @bykaniz
Thank you all for joining us at the opening reception of 'Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg' our ongoing exhibition presented in collaboration with Kunsthaus Bregenz, and in partnership with the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Austria, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
We are truly grateful for your presence, your energy, and the conversations you brought into the space; they made the evening more meaningful.
The exhibition remains on view until 5th April 2026, and we warmly invite you to return, spend time with the works, and experience them again.
Here are a few moments from the evening.
📸 by Ammar Suleiman
Opening night at the Michael Armitage , Chelenge Van Kampeberg and Maria Lassnig group show at Nairobi Contemporary Art Center. Heavy hitters just hanging out! I don’t go out much because I’m in my studio painting all the time but so glad I made the time to go! Nice to hang with other artists like @jamo.mweu and @nyerere_michael_studio@michael_armitage_studio@chelengevan@ncai254 #contemporaryart#michaelarmitage #oliviapendergast_art @oneoffartgallery
Join us this Thursday, 19th February, from 5 pm for the opening of 'Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg,' a collaborative exhibition between NCAI and Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB).
This exhibition brings together three artists whose work shares a deep engagement with the human body—not as something observed from the outside, but as a lived experience of feeling, connection and vulnerability. Across different generations and locales, Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig and Chelenge Van Rampelberg have considered the fundamental questions: How do we experience our bodies? How do we relate to one another and to the world?
This exhibition opening will be followed by an artist talk between Michael Armitage and Chelenge Van Rampelberg on Saturday, 21st February, from 2 pm at the gallery.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria, European and International Affairs, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
Entry is free; RSVP via the respective links in bio.
'Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, Chelenge Van Rampelberg' will run until Sunday, 5th April 2026.
Maria Lassnig (1919-2014) created a substantial body of work in the fields of painting and graphics. The key notion which came to characterise Lassnig’s work was above all the concept of Body Awareness: by introspectively discovering the true nature of her own condition, she expressed physical sensations through the use of artistic media. Numerous self-portraits offer evidence of the form of self-analysis.
After studying at the Vienna Academy, Lassnig explored surrealism and then art informel, which she presented in Austria in 1951 after a trip to Paris. During her stay in France (1960-68), Lassnig – confronted with Nouvelle Figuration and Pop Art – refined her own visual language. In New York (1968-80), her interests included (animated) film and the Women’s movement.
In 1980, Lassnig received a professorship at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and represented Austria at the Venice Biennale. She showed her work at the documenta in 1982 and 1997. From the 1990s onwards, Lassnig exhibited more internationally and received important prizes, including the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Lassnig is regarded as a pioneer of female emancipation in a world of art dominated by men. Her visionary work has had a great influence on subsequent generations of artists.
Maria Lassnig will be showing alongside Michael Armitage and Chelenge Van Rampelberg at NCAI, opening on 19th February 2026 at 5 pm.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
Entry is free- Please RSVP via the link in bio
Image courtesy of the Maria Lassnig Foundation
Born and raised in Kericho, Kenya, Chelenge Van Rampelberg (b. 1961) began working in the mediums of painting and sculpture in 1984.
Her upbringing exposed her to a variety of indigenous practices of making, and these formed the foundation of her creative expression. Chelenge added to her skills by participating in artists’ workshops, especially in the early years of her practice when she took part in sculpture and printmaking workshops at Gallery Watatu, Ngecha Artists Association, and the French Cultural Centre in Nairobi.
Chelenge taps into her personal experiences and memories to create works that reflect human behaviour and the fragility at the heart of the human condition.
Today, Chelenge resides and works in Tuala, on the border of the Nairobi National Park. She is renowned as one of the foremost sculptors in Kenya.
Chelenge Van Rampelberg will be showing alongside Michael Armitage and Maria Lassnig at NCAI, opening on 19th February 2026 at 5 pm.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Austria, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
Entry is free- Please RSVP via the link in bio
Image credits
Chelenge Van Rampelberg, 2023
Photo by @bykaniz
The Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) in collaboration with Kunsthaus Bregenz presents ‘Michael Armitage, Maria Lassnig, and Chelenge Van Rampelberg’ in an exhibition that brings together three distinct yet deeply connected artistic voices, opening on Thursday, 19th February 2026.
Following its first presentation at Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB) in 2025, this travelling exhibition arrives at NCAI for its second iteration, extending an intergenerational and transcontinental conversation shaped by shared inquiries into the human condition.
Uniting drawings, lithographs, prints, and sculptures, the exhibition explores the body as a site of vulnerability, relationship, and belonging. Marking a significant moment for Nairobi, it features the first showing of works by both Michael Armitage and Maria Lassnig in East Africa.
With the selection of works shaped by Armitage, the exhibition foregrounds influence, lineage, and artistic affinity, situating these converging perspectives within a renewed local and global context at NCAI.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Maria Lassnig Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Austria, and the Austrian Embassy in Nairobi.
#NCAI #TravellingExhibition #MichaelArmitage #MariaLassnig #ChelengeVanRampelberg #ContemporaryArt #NairobiArt
