In 2013 the idea for Circle Art Agency was born by founders: Danda Jaroljmek, Arvind Vohora and Fiona Fox; in a converted 1970s modernist house in Lavington, Nairobi with the vision to raise international awareness for artists in the East African region and to build a local collector base for East African artists.  We started by curating ground breaking pop-up exhibitions around the city of Nairobi and by establishing a Modern and Contemporary East African art auction – of which the tenth edition in 2022 was the most successful to date. In 2015, we built the first white cube gallery in Nairobi and began a programme of – to date – over 75 carefully curated group and solo exhibitions run by Director, Danda Jaroljmek, and in 2020 we joined Cromwell Place in London, a membership club for galleries to have more of a foothold in London where we have regular exhibitions alongside our participation in Art Fairs in London, Paris, New York, Lagos, Cape Town and more. 

 

Circle is a limited company with shareholders who are art collectors and enthusiasts and have been staunch supporters of our development: Philip Coulson, Samit Gehlot (Intex Foundation), Tony Wainaina, Robert Devereux, Dayo Forster, Caroline Fox, Jeremy Block, Fulvio Honneger, Gary Nealon, Karuga Koinange, Angeline Ngugi, Ranjith Cherickel and Richard Harney.

 

Over the last ten years, Circle staff and graduates on our internship programme have been through rigorous on the ground training in arts management, curatorship, art handling and hanging exhibitions. Many of our staff and trainees have gone on to further training and to run new arts initiatives in East Africa and transfer their skills to new generations of Kenyans who wish to work in the visual arts.