The Singer & the Red Rose — Muyaka Shitanda

The Singer and The Red Rose is the first solo exhibition by Kenyan artist Muyaka Shitanda, curated by The Station and co-presented with the Holmes à Court Gallery at Afrika House, where he spent a residency working in the gallery with the room open to visitors before the show opened on 19 September.

The exhibition gathers more than 20 new works in painting, photography and sculpture. It is built around the theatre: the performer on stage, the audience in the dark and the rose thrown in applause, asking who we are when we are watched, who we become alone, and whether we live for applause.

Born in Nairobi in 1997, Shitanda trained in architecture and is otherwise self-taught; he tears, layers and over-exposes photographs until faces dissolve into silhouette or light. He has shown at Galerie Joseph in Paris, PhotoVogue Festival in Milan and Kraków Photomonth. Viewing is by appointment.