There’s some Gen Z, in Nairobi, that may not take to the streets and choose activism to express its need for social change, humanity and cohesion. I’m talking about young artists who, besides giving extra meaning and a vision of beauty to the hopes of so many of their age mates, make Kenya's present even more interesting and its future even more attractive.
In the incredible florilegium of art galleries, cultural centres, artists' cooperatives and creative workshops in the capital, there is also the Kuona Artist Collective, where we meet an exceptional painter: Patti Endo.

Twenty-seven years old, a Kenyan of clear Japanese origin, Patti, although still very young, already had collective and solo exhibitions halfway around the world, from ‘her’ East to Europe, from Dubai to New York.
Hers is a minimal, introspective figurative art that is not ashamed to investigate the human soul and create union in contrast, just as Japanese ink drawing on paper might seem to contrast with the expressiveness of African forms and faces.
Apparent contrasts that, in the beauty and uniqueness of Patti Endo's works, express the ‘unspoken’ of her generation: painful sensuality, spontaneous brazenness and the incommunicability of love. Contrasts that not only belong to Gen Z, but which few metropolises like Nairobi can harmoniously contain. Just as it is pleasing to be surprised by the contrast between the introspective, sometimes shadowy, impenetrable works and her sunny, affable, buoyant character.

‘I am lucky to have been born into art,’ says the Kenyan artist. ‘As a child, I used to go to my grandmother's in Tokyo every year. She was a painter and used to draw in ink, with a traditional technique. I have developed my own way, pouring water on Japanese paper and letting it absorb before painting, creating ripples and natural movements that complete the work'.
Undoubtedly, ancestry is not enough, one has to be gifted and her parents, both art enthusiasts, sensed their young daughter's talents and gave her the opportunity to attend the University of Fine Arts in Brighton, Great Britain.
‘During my teenage years outside Kenya, apart from studying different drawing techniques, art was a way of release and self expression’ Patti reveals. ‘When I returned to Nairobi in 2016, I dove into the fertile and dazzling Kenyan scene full of expressiveness, talented artists in different fields, and aggregation. Opening my studio in Kuona and trying to make a living from art was a natural consequence'.
Patti Endo's works, as she explained, are basically of two genres: introspective ones, which probe into the depths of feelings in the modern era, and purely expressive ones, which let their hand go through the African experience and seek out lines balanced between subtraction and depth. Particularly striking for what they manage to express are bodies and faces in symbiosis, tangent and intersecting, mirrored or very different.
‘We humans know that we have a lot in common, during this journey we call life, and we are and we are much more connected than it may seem,’ Endo admits. ‘It comes naturally to me to convey these thoughts through what I draw, each figure carries within itself a thought, a feeling, which comes to touch another, to join it, without being ashamed of it.
Like hermetic poetry, each drawing by the young Kenyan artist is open to multiple interpretations. Perhaps it is not for everyone, and at first glance it may appear as ‘un-African’ because it does not express the classical iconography we are used to, but it recounts the world of today with a personal and authentic gaze, with surprising depth.
‘Art has to be inclusive, but keep its share of exclusivity,’ says Patti, ‘Creativity is courage, if you worry too much about what you are doing, about the message you are conveying, authenticity dies. My generation lives the present with passion, without wondering what will happen and without the presumption that it can be understood and accepted by everyone. Just like I do, when I create a work and let myself be carried away by thought, instinct and creativity, without worrying about how it will be interpreted, whether it will be liked or not.
Like her contemporaries who are working harder than ever to create a new Kenya that reflects their ideals, in a country where 3 out of 4 citizens are under 35, Patti Endo does not stop: she continues to create and market her art, with the desire to be able to exhibit it abroad and to travel with her, to confront, learn and absorb new things. Lately, fashion designers, accessory lines and other companies have been requesting her designs, lines and enigmatic faces to create objects that can combine elegance and expressiveness with their proposals.
‘Marketing art is not a bad thing and does not debase it,’ is Patti's thought. ‘I created my own brand, to transfer my style also onto accessories, such as bags, plates, cushions, earrings. It is not only a way to discover the effect of the works in other areas, but also to make my art available at a more affordable price for everyone'.
To get to know Patti Endo and her works, simply go to Kuona, in Likoni Close in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
Better write to pattiotiendo@gmail.com first, to make sure you find her!