Doyle Wham, the UK's first and only contemporary African photography gallery, is presenting Tommie Ominde’s first ever solo exhibition. The exhibition runs until 13 August and offers a comprehensive look into the artist’s unique photographic world.
Ominde was born and has lived ever since in the coastal town of Kilifi in Kenya, a small settlement north of Mombasa. He has witnessed gradual and fascinating changes in Kilifi, seeing how the slow but steady influx of tourism has begun to transform his hometown in subtle ways. As a photographer primarily interested in the relationship between people and their surrounding landscape, the last ten years have been a fruitful decade of exploration, observation and documentation for Ominde.
Through the artworks in this exhibition, titled Postcards from Kilifi, we are presented with a unique insight into daily life in Kilifi and, in particular, the myriad ways in which people interact with its coastline. From baptisms to beach-combers, from acrobats to tree-climbers, from fisherman tracing the shore in their dhows to sunset-gazers and goat-herders, the sea is at the core of Ominde’s practice and he is uniquely positioned to capture his fellow participants’ vital relationships with it.
Accessibility is key for Ominde. Therefore, alongside the monumentally-sized photographs presented, there is a wide range of limited-edition artworks exhibited and available for purchase for £200, framed.
ABOUT TOMMIE OMINDE
Tommie Ominde (b. 1996) is a Kenyan photographer who aims to document and demonstrate the beauty of his coastal hometown, Kilifi. Ominde is inspired by exploration and the manner in which we occupy space, in particular our relationship with the natural and built environment. He describes Kilifi, a small town north of Mombasa, as his local canvas. His protagonists are nature herself and figures captured in motion and contemplation, engaged in regular activities that are rendered suddenly and strikingly unfamiliar by the exposure and elongation of these interim, transitory moments.
ABOUT DOYLE WHAM
Doyle Wham is the UK's first and only contemporary African photography gallery. The gallery was founded in October 2020 with an itinerant programme of physical and digital exhibitions, as well as participations in art fairs such as Photo London and Abuja Art Week. As of March 2022, Doyle Wham has launched its first permanent location in Shoreditch, London.
The gallery exhibits both emerging and established artists from Africa and across the African diaspora, with a focus on supporting early-career artists. Doyle Wham celebrates photography in all its forms, from traditional analogue photography to film. Highlighting innovative and experimental expression is at the core of the gallery's ethos. Its 2022 programme will explore this further by expanding into mixed media exhibitions that show the versatility and influence of photography, from commissioning sculptural responses to photographic works, to physical presentations of NFT art.
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