Nairobi dealer Danda Jaroljmek's Art Auction East Africa offers 67 lots on 28 October

Danda Jaroljmek, the Nairobi art dealer who launched Art Auction East Africa in 2013, will put 67 lots under the hammer at Circle Art Gallery on 28 October. A preview party runs from 6pm to 8pm on 14 October, according to the auction's website.

The sale is held at the gallery on Victoria Square, Riara Road, Lavington, and is broadcast on the Strauss & Co Invaluable platform. Strauss & Co, the South African auction house, and Art Auction East Africa announced a partnership on 30 May 2025. “Continuity is vital to securing artistic legacies,” Jaroljmek said in that announcement. All lots are on view at the gallery for the two weeks before the sale.

The first sale came in 2013. Hyperallergic reported on 20 November 2013 that Jaroljmek, then director of Circle Art, had offered 47 works by 43 artists in what it called the first major art auction in East Africa. “Kenyans like a party,” she said, as quoted by Hyperallergic, and she spoke of “a big noise, some glamour, a sort of party atmosphere.”

In an interview that STARTjournal published on 3 November 2015, she gave a practical reason for holding auctions. “An auction is an established international platform for acquiring art and encouraging a secondary market for art,” she said, meaning a market in which works are resold after they leave the artist's studio. In the same interview she said the price of most East African art was still “very affordable compared with other art markets.”

The 2026 sale is split evenly between modern and contemporary works, the website says, and its artists come from nine countries. The page names artists from Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The sale concentrates on rare secondary-market works from the 1960s to the 2000s, with a curated group of contemporary pieces. Estimates in the lot list run from KES 55,000 for George Lilanga's “Shetani (Spirits)” (1977, edition 32/50) to KES 2.6 million, the top of the range for Salah Elmur's untitled seated figure of 2019.

Three Sudanese artists carry the highest estimates. Elmur's seated figure is estimated at KES 1.3 million to 2.6 million. Ahmed Shibrain's “The Tempest” (c. 1993–1998) is put at KES 1.45 million to 2.4 million, and Rashid Diab's “Women” (2013) at KES 1 million to 2 million.

Tanzanian painters also carry high estimates. Edward Saidi Tingatinga's untitled landscape with a lion and a bird (1971) is estimated at KES 1.2 million to 1.6 million. His “Untitled (Tortoise)” topped the three highest prices listed on the results page of the 6 November 2024 sale, at KES 3,169,800.

Kiure Francis Msangi (1937–2003), the Tanzanian painter whose retrospective ran at Circle Art Gallery until 10 October, has two lots: “My First Wife” (1987), estimated at KES 900,000 to 1.5 million, and “Mt Kilimanjaro at Dawn” (edition 13/197), at KES 270,000 to 500,000.

The auction's website lists Nigeria's Bruce Onobrakpeya and Chéri Chérin of the DRC as debuting. Onobrakpeya has two works, “Oyo Weavers” (1975, edition 15/50) and “Oba Aka II (In the Hands of God)” (1980, edition 12/15), each estimated at KES 70,000 to 120,000. Chérin's “Un Sapeur Sachant Saper” (2020) is estimated at KES 300,000 to 400,000.

Ugandan artists include Fabian Mpagi, with three lots, and Francis Nnaggenda, whose “Untitled (Mother and Children)” (1964–66) is estimated at KES 400,000 to 500,000. Among the Kenyan lots, Samuel Wanjau's “Untitled (Bird with Chicks)” is estimated at KES 900,000 to 1.2 million.

Last year's sale, on 5 November 2025, was the first held under the Strauss & Co banner. Strauss & Co reported on 7 November 2025 that Msangi's “Baobab Under the Red Moon” sold for KES 3,522,000, more than double its pre-sale estimate. Business Daily reported on 6 November 2025 that sales passed KES 29 million. The auction's results page lists Sam Ntiro's “Working in the Fields” at KES 1,291,400.

Jaroljmek, director of Circle Art Agency, said in Strauss & Co's report: “Sales were up on previous years, with especially big results for rare works by K.F. Msangi and Sam Ntiro.”

Bidders can register through the “Register to bid” link on the sale page or with the Registration & Bidding Form, and the website gives [email protected] for registration queries.