Chelenge Van Rampelberg

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Chelenge Van Rampelberg (born 1961) [1] is a Kenyan sculptor who works with wood. She has been called Kenya's first female sculptor. [2] She also has produced oil paintings. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Van Rampeberg was raised in the rural community of Kericho in the Rift Valley. [4] She was exposed to wood and cutting wood from an early age, due to the necessity of gathering firewood from the forests near her home. [5]

She did not receive a formal arts education until the early 1990s, when she attended a two-week workshop at Alliance Francaise about etching and woodcut printing. [5] She has since also taken courses from Alliance Francaise, Gallery Watatu, and the Ngecha Artist Association. [3]

Career

After her three children started school, Van Rampelberg found herself with free time, which she decided to dedicate to art. [5] She took up painting, but hid her pieces. [5] Her husband, after seeing her paintings, encouraged her to try and have them exhibited. Van Rampelberg's first exhibition was in 1985. [6] Her oil paintings are primarily narrative, drawing on stories and images from her childhood. [3]

Van Rampelberg first began carving wood after an avocado tree fell outside her house and she decided to try sculpting the wood as a way to relieve stress. [4] Her first sculpture, My Mum and I, is held by the Nairobi Contemporary Arts Institute as of 2024. [3] She continued experimenting, and had carved three pieces she enjoyed within three months. [4] Her sculptures are semi-abstract, and "[centre] heavily around women, their place in society, black beauty and gender inequality" as well as exploring religious themes. [3]

In 1996, Van Rampelberg carved Adam and Eve, a piece consisting of two figures made out of ebony wood. [3]

In 2013, Van Rampelberg was one of six artists included in an exhibition at the Nairobi National Museum celebrating 50 years of Kenyan independence, [7] [8] and she also had a solo exhibition in the One Off gallery at Rosslyn, near Nairobi. Several of her sculptures were bought that year by the Sankara Hotel at Westlands. [6]

In 2014, Van Rampelberg was the artist in residence at the Lamu Painters Festival. [4]

In 2020, Van Rampelberg was included as part of a German exhibition centering on work by Michael Armitage, who was a childhood friend of one of her children. [9] [10] The exhibition was also shown in London at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2021. [11] In 2022, the exhibition moved to Nairobi under the name "Mwili, Akili na Roho", and was expanded with works by three additional artists. [9] [1]

In 2023, two of Van Rampelberg's sculptures were included in an exhibition by Alliance Francaise focusing on Kenyan women artists. [12] In 2024, a retrospective of Van Rampelberg's work was held at the Nairobi Contemporary Arts Institute. [3]

Personal life

After finishing high school, Chelenge married French artist and furniture designer Marc Van Rampelberg in the early 1980s. [10] [13] The couple had three children. [5]

Van Rampelberg's studio is in Tuala, Ongata Rongai, close to the southern part of Nairobi National Park. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 "'Mwili akili Na Roho' at Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, Nairobi, Kenya - ART AFRICA Magazine". 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  2. ↑ Rix, Juliet. "Michael Armitage – interview: 'Not having a cultural hierarchy is liberating'". www.studiointernational.com. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mutu, Kari (2024-01-20). "Van Rampelberg's artistic journey to and from home". The East African. Retrieved 2024-07-23.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Chelenge van Rampelberg – Lamu Workshop in November 2014 at the Artist in Residence Program of the Lamu Painters Festival". www.lamupaintersfestival.org. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "#KeArtists – Chelenge Van Rampelberg". Paukwa. 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
  6. 1 2 Whalley, Frank (October 3, 2013). "Visions of a more peaceful and kinder world". The East African. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  7. ↑ "This exhibition is all about freedom in all its artistic forms". Business Daily. December 12, 2013. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  8. ↑ Whalley, Frank (December 13, 2013). "Freedom, a good idea in a simple package". The East African. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  9. 1 2 Mwiti, Anne (2023-01-26). "A major new exhibition in Nairobi reveals the history of East African art traditions". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  10. 1 2 "Artist Michael Armitage speaks with Hans Ulrich Obrist on his love for painting and for Goya". Numéro Magazine. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  11. ↑ "Michael Armitage | Exhibition". Royal Academy of Arts. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  12. ↑ Wa Gacheru, Margaretta (2023-03-17). "Female artists shine in art exhibitions". Nation. Retrieved 2023-10-01.
  13. ↑ Kairu, Pauline (2020-07-05). "Furniture designer makes impossible dreams come alive in wood". Nation. Retrieved 2023-10-02.
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