Where to Buy Contemporary Art in East Africa
By Njeri Wachira · 3 July 2026 · 2 min read
The real, named venues for buying contemporary art in the region right now — galleries, the secondary-market auction, and platforms — not a generic list.
Here's an honest, named map of where contemporary art actually changes hands in this region right now, rather than a generic "check local galleries" answer.
Established Nairobi galleries
Circle Art Gallery, founded 2013 and expanded to 2,500 square feet in 2023 (plus a second smaller space added in 2025), represents a working roster and runs a regular exhibition programme — the most established gallery venue in the region's contemporary scene. The GoDown Arts Centre and Kuona Trust also host exhibitions and connect directly to working artists, alongside smaller private galleries and institutes.
The region's secondary-market auction
Since November 2025, Art Auction East Africa | Strauss & Co has run the region's first dedicated secondary-market sale — this is where historically significant and established work actually resells, distinct from buying new work directly from a living artist's studio.
Direct-from-artist and platform purchases
Buying directly from an artist — through their own channels or a platform like ArtCollect that publishes real, priced, direct-from-artist work — cuts out gallery margin and gets you the story straight from the source, with the trade-off that you're doing the verification work yourself rather than relying on a gallery's vetting.
Regional venues beyond Nairobi
Mombasa, Kisumu, and other regional centres have their own smaller but real gallery and workshop scenes, generally organised around studios and community spaces rather than a formal gallery circuit — following specific artists and causes based in those cities is a more reliable way to find them than searching for a comprehensive regional gallery list.
Choosing between these, honestly
Established galleries offer vetting and provenance support at gallery-margin prices; direct-from-artist purchase offers a lower price and a direct story at the cost of doing your own verification; the auction market currently serves resale of established work more than primary discovery. None is universally "better" — they serve different purposes.
— Otieno Odhiambo