Detail: 5pm at EPZ Ruaraka, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
70 x 90 cm
Kshs 98 000
Acrylic on Canvas
70 x 90 cm
Kshs 98 000
Newton Eshivachi
Chorus of Beings
Curated by Thom Ogonga
Egonomies of Scale, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 90 cm
Kshs 150 000
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 90 cm
Kshs 150 000
Artist Statement
Newton Eshivachi is a Nairobi-based visual artist whose practice examines contemporary African societies through the lens of Critical Realism within a Metamodern context.
Born and raised in Nairobi’s informal neighborhoods, his lived experience informs a sustained inquiry into power, social structures, and the contradictions of everyday life. He holds a degree in Agribusiness Management from the University of Nairobi and is a self-taught artist whose interdisciplinary interests span philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, and global politics.
Eshivachi began his artistic practice working with pen and pencil before transitioning to acrylic painting, a medium he developed through an art training program supported by the British Council, the European Union, and Heva Fund. Positioning art as both social critique and reflective practice, Eshivachi’s work describes the often-overlooked forces shaping lived realities in Metamodern African societies; where idealism and disillusionment, hope and constraint, coexist in tension.
Newton Eshivachi - Nairobi - April 2026
Newton Eshivachi is a Nairobi-based visual artist whose practice examines contemporary African societies through the lens of Critical Realism within a Metamodern context.
Born and raised in Nairobi’s informal neighborhoods, his lived experience informs a sustained inquiry into power, social structures, and the contradictions of everyday life. He holds a degree in Agribusiness Management from the University of Nairobi and is a self-taught artist whose interdisciplinary interests span philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, and global politics.
Eshivachi began his artistic practice working with pen and pencil before transitioning to acrylic painting, a medium he developed through an art training program supported by the British Council, the European Union, and Heva Fund. Positioning art as both social critique and reflective practice, Eshivachi’s work describes the often-overlooked forces shaping lived realities in Metamodern African societies; where idealism and disillusionment, hope and constraint, coexist in tension.
Newton Eshivachi - Nairobi - April 2026
Queen Victoria at Bunge la Wananchi, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 70 cm
Kshs 98 000
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 70 cm
Kshs 98 000
Jabanese, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 120 cm
Kshs 120 000
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 120 cm
Kshs 120 000
About Newton Eshivachi
Eshivachi is a sharp eyed, and dedicated fine artist examining African Societies through the lens of Critical Realism—capturing tensions of power, truth and becoming—in our Metamodern zeitgeist.
Core Values:
● Professionalism
● Team work
● Freedom of expression
Professional Experience MAJOR EXHIBITIONS:
● 2025: Crossed perspectives on Kenyan Society. Double exhibition with Joseph Bertiers at Alliance Francaise, Nairobi, curated by Charles Courdent and Harsita Waters.
● 2025: Art Salon 523, Group exhibition at Kobo Trust, curated by Onyis Martin.
● 2025: SOS Art Kenya, Group Exhibition at Kibera Art District, curated by Santana Sino and Jamey Ponte.
● 2024 Dec: Emerging Echoes:Group exhibition at Alliance Francaise Nairobi, Curated by Onyis Martin and Uweza Art Gallery.
● 2024 June: Maandamano Exhibition, on Government protests.organized by Pawa254.
● 2023: Wasanii wa Mtaani, Group Exhibition at Alliance Francaise, curated by Uweza Art Gallery.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION:
● 2024: Art and Business Training facilitated and organized by Uweza Art Gallery through European Union, Heva Fund, British Council, in the Ignite Culture Program.
● 2014-2018: Bsc. Agribusiness Management, University of Nairobi
Eshivachi is a sharp eyed, and dedicated fine artist examining African Societies through the lens of Critical Realism—capturing tensions of power, truth and becoming—in our Metamodern zeitgeist.
Core Values:
● Professionalism
● Team work
● Freedom of expression
Professional Experience MAJOR EXHIBITIONS:
● 2025: Crossed perspectives on Kenyan Society. Double exhibition with Joseph Bertiers at Alliance Francaise, Nairobi, curated by Charles Courdent and Harsita Waters.
● 2025: Art Salon 523, Group exhibition at Kobo Trust, curated by Onyis Martin.
● 2025: SOS Art Kenya, Group Exhibition at Kibera Art District, curated by Santana Sino and Jamey Ponte.
● 2024 Dec: Emerging Echoes:Group exhibition at Alliance Francaise Nairobi, Curated by Onyis Martin and Uweza Art Gallery.
● 2024 June: Maandamano Exhibition, on Government protests.organized by Pawa254.
● 2023: Wasanii wa Mtaani, Group Exhibition at Alliance Francaise, curated by Uweza Art Gallery.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION:
● 2024: Art and Business Training facilitated and organized by Uweza Art Gallery through European Union, Heva Fund, British Council, in the Ignite Culture Program.
● 2014-2018: Bsc. Agribusiness Management, University of Nairobi
Jobless Kona, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 70 cm
Kshs 98 000
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 70 cm
Kshs 98 000
Lumpenproletarian, 2026
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 87 cm
Kshs 89 000
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 87 cm
Kshs 89 000
Chorus of Beings - Curatorial Statement - Thom Ogonga
Chorus of Beings brings together two dynamic emerging artists - Paul Njihia and Newton Eshivachi - whose practices explore the dynamics of physical human presence within everyday spaces. The exhibition considers how bodies inhabit, negotiate, and imprint themselves upon the environments they traverse. Figures emerge not as isolated subjects, but as relational entities - caught in moments of proximity, distance, and subtle exchange - where gesture, posture, and spatial arrangement become carriers of meaning.
At the heart of the exhibition is an attentiveness to the ordinary: shared public settings and transient, in-between spaces that often go unnoticed. Within these sites, the artists trace the quiet choreography of daily life, foregrounding tensions between visibility and invisibility, presence and absence. Bodies dissolve, overlap, and fragment, suggesting the instability of identity and the porous boundaries between self and other.
Chorus of Beings ultimately proposes presence as something collective rather than singular - a chorus rather than a solo. In this gathering of forms, the exhibition gestures toward a shared field of existence shaped by memory, emotion, power, truth, and fleeting encounters. What emerges is a meditation on how we are continually constituted through others, our surroundings, and the subtle, often unspoken rhythms of being together in space.
Njihia’s Nairobi Sisi TV comprises a body of work featuring figures rendered from an aerial perspective, drawing directly from the visual logic of CCTV surveillance. Influenced by the omnipresent gaze of overhead cameras, these paintings examine the shifting power dynamics embedded in everyday life. As CCTV systems become increasingly normalized across streets, workplaces, and public spaces, their function extends beyond security into the realm of surveillance.
Here, surveillance is understood not as neutral, but as an act performed by those in positions of power upon those below. The aerial viewpoint becomes a potent symbol of this imbalance: visible to all, yet controlled by unseen observers. This persistent condition of being watched shapes behavior, reinforcing hierarchies and internalized discipline. Njihia’s work interrogates the tensions between protection and policing, visibility and invisibility, freedom and control, inviting viewers to adopt the perspective of the camera lens while simultaneously questioning its authority.
Eshivachi’s practice is grounded in the belief that reality extends beyond what is immediately visible, and that what ought to be often stands in tension with what is. This dialectic - central to Metamodernism - forms the conceptual foundation of his work. Situated within this framework, his practice oscillates between sincerity and irony, hope and doubt, reflecting the complexities of contemporary experience.
Moving beyond naïve realism, Eshivachi employs Critical Realism to interrogate contemporary African societies. Rather than limiting his inquiry to surface appearances, he probes the underlying socio-cultural, economic, and political structures that produce observable conditions and behaviors. His work engages lived, material realities - everyday interactions that often stand in contradiction to the abstract ideals upheld by modernist institutions.
In scenes such as overcrowded public transport vehicles, Eshivachi foregrounds the realities of survival and necessity in tension with institutional frameworks of regulation, safety, and order. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas, he frequently depicts figures clad in prison uniforms within familiar environments. This recurring motif reflects a condition in which freedom and constraint coexist: the uniform functioning as a metaphor for the pervasive, often invisible systems of governance, discipline, and control that shape contemporary life.
Ultimately, Eshivachi’s practice extends a critical inquiry into identity, power, truth, and social control, encouraging viewers to question the systems and narratives that structure lived experience within contemporary African contexts.
Copyright 2026 Thom Ogonga
Chorus of Beings brings together two dynamic emerging artists - Paul Njihia and Newton Eshivachi - whose practices explore the dynamics of physical human presence within everyday spaces. The exhibition considers how bodies inhabit, negotiate, and imprint themselves upon the environments they traverse. Figures emerge not as isolated subjects, but as relational entities - caught in moments of proximity, distance, and subtle exchange - where gesture, posture, and spatial arrangement become carriers of meaning.
At the heart of the exhibition is an attentiveness to the ordinary: shared public settings and transient, in-between spaces that often go unnoticed. Within these sites, the artists trace the quiet choreography of daily life, foregrounding tensions between visibility and invisibility, presence and absence. Bodies dissolve, overlap, and fragment, suggesting the instability of identity and the porous boundaries between self and other.
Chorus of Beings ultimately proposes presence as something collective rather than singular - a chorus rather than a solo. In this gathering of forms, the exhibition gestures toward a shared field of existence shaped by memory, emotion, power, truth, and fleeting encounters. What emerges is a meditation on how we are continually constituted through others, our surroundings, and the subtle, often unspoken rhythms of being together in space.
Njihia’s Nairobi Sisi TV comprises a body of work featuring figures rendered from an aerial perspective, drawing directly from the visual logic of CCTV surveillance. Influenced by the omnipresent gaze of overhead cameras, these paintings examine the shifting power dynamics embedded in everyday life. As CCTV systems become increasingly normalized across streets, workplaces, and public spaces, their function extends beyond security into the realm of surveillance.
Here, surveillance is understood not as neutral, but as an act performed by those in positions of power upon those below. The aerial viewpoint becomes a potent symbol of this imbalance: visible to all, yet controlled by unseen observers. This persistent condition of being watched shapes behavior, reinforcing hierarchies and internalized discipline. Njihia’s work interrogates the tensions between protection and policing, visibility and invisibility, freedom and control, inviting viewers to adopt the perspective of the camera lens while simultaneously questioning its authority.
Eshivachi’s practice is grounded in the belief that reality extends beyond what is immediately visible, and that what ought to be often stands in tension with what is. This dialectic - central to Metamodernism - forms the conceptual foundation of his work. Situated within this framework, his practice oscillates between sincerity and irony, hope and doubt, reflecting the complexities of contemporary experience.
Moving beyond naïve realism, Eshivachi employs Critical Realism to interrogate contemporary African societies. Rather than limiting his inquiry to surface appearances, he probes the underlying socio-cultural, economic, and political structures that produce observable conditions and behaviors. His work engages lived, material realities - everyday interactions that often stand in contradiction to the abstract ideals upheld by modernist institutions.
In scenes such as overcrowded public transport vehicles, Eshivachi foregrounds the realities of survival and necessity in tension with institutional frameworks of regulation, safety, and order. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas, he frequently depicts figures clad in prison uniforms within familiar environments. This recurring motif reflects a condition in which freedom and constraint coexist: the uniform functioning as a metaphor for the pervasive, often invisible systems of governance, discipline, and control that shape contemporary life.
Ultimately, Eshivachi’s practice extends a critical inquiry into identity, power, truth, and social control, encouraging viewers to question the systems and narratives that structure lived experience within contemporary African contexts.
Copyright 2026 Thom Ogonga