Theresa Musoke
Antelopes
About the SessionNAIROBI – Following their successful collaboration in 2025, Strauss & Co, Africa’s leading auction house, and Danda Jaroljmek, Director of Art Auction East Africa, will present Art Auction East Africa | Strauss & Co, a 67-lot sale bringing together modern and contemporary art from East Africa and the wider continent. The live-virtual sale will be held at Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi on Wednesday, 28 October, 2026, 7pm EAT.
The 2026 edition includes works by Kenyan painter Boniface Maina and Tanzanian artist K.F. Msangi, both of whom attracted strong bidding at the 2025 edition, with their works selling above pre-sale estimates.
Dated 1987, K.F. Msangi’s My First Wife (estimate KES 900 000 – 1 500 000 / US$7 000 – 11 800) is a satirical depiction of consumer avarice that recalls details from Ayi Kwei Armah’s classic novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968). Msangi’s work was recently the subject of a survey exhibition at Circle Art Gallery. Boniface Maina’s Contemplating in Bliss (estimate KES 300 000 – 500 000 / US$2 350 – 3 900) dates from 2011.
“The catalogue for this year’s edition includes a number of important Kenyan artists, ranging from contemporary figures Cyrus Kabiru, Peterson Kamwathi, Boniface Maina and Kaloki Nyamai to expressionist painter Sane Wadu, founder of the Ngecha Artists Association, and his wife, Eunice Wadu, a pioneering woman artist in East Africa,” says Danda Jaroljmek, Director of Circle Art Agency, who founded Art Auction East Africa in 2013. “There is also a strong selection of works by Sudanese artists, including Salah Elmur, Rashid Diab and Ahmed Shibrain, a founding figure of the influential Khartoum School.”
Artist, Salah Elmur, who was mentored by Khartoum School member Kamala Ishaq, is best known for his vibrant and symbolic portraits, which evoke memories of his childhood and youth in Sudan. Elmur left Sudan in 1989 and has lived in Cairo since the early 1990s. The sale features two works that track his evolving style. Dated 2019, Untitled (Seated Figure) (estimate KES 1 200 000 – 2 600 000 / US$10 000 – 20 000) showcases his signature cubistic treatment of facial features and use of warm, earthy tones.
The catalogue spans a diversity of East African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, alongside works by artists from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria. Works on paper, photography and sculpture complements the strong painting consignment. Highlights include renowned modernist sculptor Samuel Wanjau’s carved bird sculpture (estimate KES 900 000 – 1 200 000 / US$7 000 – 9 000). Wanjau received his training at Akamba, a commercial cooperative, before moving to Paa Ya Paa Arts Centre, also in Nairobi, where he developed a personal and expressive style.
“The selection invites collectors to discover East Africa’s diverse modernist histories, particularly those beyond the Anglophone world,” says Susie Goodman. “In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in East African modernists, with artists associated with the Khartoum School shown in museums and fairs globally. Our work as an auction house rooted in Africa is ensuring this rediscovery is not temporary. We are delighted to partner with Danda Jaroljmek in cultivating a sustainable secondary market for East African modernists active during the era of decolonisation and independence.”
A preview exhibition will be held at Circle Art Gallery, Victoria Square, Riara Road, Nairobi, during the two weeks preceding the auction on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.
LOT 58
Theresa Musoke
Antelopes
About this Item
signed
Provenance
The Artist's Collection.
Notes
Best known for her expressive, semi-abstract portrayals of the region’s abundant wildlife, Theresa Musoke is one of Uganda and East Africa’s foremost artists. Her suggestive paintings merge the forms and movements of animals with their environments, developing from a process that involves dyeing canvas and then responding with acrylic and oil paint to the forms suggested by the dye-stains until they resolve into a unified composition.
Musoke’s work first began to receive attention while she was an undergraduate student at the Margaret Trowell School of Fine Arts in Kampala, where she won the Margaret Trowell Painting Prize in 1965 and had a solo exhibition at the Uganda Museum. After achieving her BA, Musoke worked for some time as an art teacher before receiving a scholarship to study for a postgraduate diploma in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London. Following this, she went on to complete an MFA at the University of Pennsylvania.
Musoke has been a highly influential artist in Kenya and Uganda, not only for her celebrated visual practice, but also as a teacher. After completing her studies, Musoke returned to Kampala where she taught at Makerere University, before relocating to Nairobi in 1976. She lived in Kenya for over 20 years and taught at different institutions including the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, the International School of Kenya, and Kestrel Manor School. Throughout this time Musoke had frequent exhibition in local galleries such as Paa Ya Paa, Gallery Watatu and the African Heritage House. She facilitated numerous informal artist workshops. Musoke currently lives in Kampala, where she continues to create art. Her work was featured in the travelling group show Mwili Akili na Roho at The Royal Academy, London and Haus Der Kunst, Munich and at NCAI, Nairobi. She held a solo presentation at 1-54 Art Fair, London in 2024 and a retrospective at Circle Art Gallery in 2025.
Biography courtesy of Circle Art Gallery.
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