Njeri Kinuthia said she had no intentions of publicly showing her artwork until she received the 2023 éclat Art Prize, presented at the Art Lovers Party at the éclat Law Firm on May 17.
“When I learned that, I was literally on the floor. I was very, very excited, and I knew this would actually be life-changing because I took this opportunity to let people in my country know that I have been making work because I was not active in my social media and I was not active in the arts outside of the MFA art program,” Kinuthia said. ”I was very excited and I knew this was the opportunity for me to start showing my work outside of UCF.”
Kinuthia, a fine arts master’s student and native Kenyan, said she uses art to depict her natural nudity with vibrant colors and fabric textures, exploring women’s issues suppressed by rigid beliefs in central Kenya. Kinuthia applied for the $5,000 éclat Art Prize scholarship and was selected among her classmates by a panel of judges in the UCF MFA studio. The éclat Law firm presented her as the prize winner, allowing her to showcase her artwork on the walls of the éclat Law Firm gallery surrounded by her classmates and other local artists.
Kinuthia said the éclat Art Prize brought her to tears and played a significant role in her life, because she feared that her parents and friends in her home country would not support her art. However, she said when the press release from the award showcased her work with her real name and country, it was life-changing.
“My dad said about nudity that God created us nude, and so that it really did not matter. I was so afraid, but now I have this support, but I still feel that the award played a big role in this because the award came first, and then I came up to my parents about what I was doing, so it played a big role giving me the courage. I had never posted any of my work since I came to the USA until I got the award,” Kinuthia said.
Kevin K. Ross-Andino founded éclat Law eight years ago. He said he grew up visiting art galleries in his home state of New York, and desired to own an art gallery. He said his idea of an art gallery on the éclat Law walls was to bring culture into Seminole County. As a result, the éclat Law Foundation for Community Action partnered with the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design for the first time to support the Master in Fine Arts program and emerging artists.
“I always wanted to own an art gallery, and so when we started this, we didn’t want to get professional artists — we wanted to work with the emerging artists, and give them a place to display their art,” Ross-Andino said.
Ross-Andino said in addition to starting the gallery because he wanted to bring a sense of culture to Seminole County through art, his team also noticed they had a great deal of space in the éclat Law Firm for their legal services as well as space to give back to the community by sharing it with new artists.
“Hopefully, this year, we are hoping to settle a couple of cases so we can double our efforts. Our goal is to try to keep increasing it every year, you know, as the firm has success putting more things or more money into the program,” Ross-Andino said.
Ross-Andino said he and Bridget Lake, president of the éclat art foundation and the director of business development and marketing, enjoyed visiting the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design building to see artwork from the emerging media MFA, studio art and design students.
“It was kind of cool, and it was something different, and nice to see all the passion in there. Bridget and I both left feeling rejuvenated, like ‘this is cool.’” Ross-Andino said. “So we feel it is definitely worthwhile to support them, because the scholarships are for a lot of things, and I think the thing that we don’t see is the people putting back into the arts like they should.”
Jason Burrell, a senior lecturer, assistant director, and graduate coordinator of SVAD, said that the size of the award of $5,000 was important because for young artists, that can be a transformative amount of money.
“That solves bills that provide for investments and creativity for a period of time,” Burrell said. ”That is worth mentioning and appreciating, that éclat Law has gone above and beyond just to make this possible,” Burrell said.
Kinuthia said the money got sent to her bank account weeks before the event, helping her purchase the hardware materials she needed to hang up her artwork at the éclat Law Firm gallery.
“I got myself a lot of supplies that I really needed and I had not been able to get them, and I also got to buy hardware to hang up my work, installations, and boards that I really needed, so it was very timely that they actually sent the money before the event because the art supplies are very expensive and it was super helpful,” Kinuthia said.
Kinuthia said she is grateful to her professors and faculty because they have helped her artwork grow.
“It is through their feedback that my work has grown, and I am now making work that communicates what I want it to communicate, and I am not just making art for the sake of it. It has a purpose, and it has a message to it, and I created that to my professors and all the support through the program,” Kinuthia said.
Kinuthia said her professors were happy she could share her artwork to her family, but she said she did not expect to receive her mother’s supportive advice.
“My mom told me that I should not be scared about what other people will say, even people from my culture, because she has my full support and she identifies with my work, and I should not care what anyone else says or thinks,” Kinuthia said.” It’s been so surreal, the whole thing is unbelievable. It brought me to tears, and when I told my professors that, they were also really touched because I did not expect them, including my dad, to actually be very positive about it.”
Kinuthia said after receiving the prize, she was motivated by how she influenced her parents’ and other womens’ reactions when she saw how people viewed her art as a powerful outwork.
“This award is very motivating because I feel that I can do it. It is not only the monetary value but also the exposure this gives me to show my work in a public space to show to the local community in Orlando,” Kinuthia said. ”That means so much to me, and seeing women can identify with this is very motivating when I see people view this as a powerful artwork,” Kinuthia said.
Kinuthia said she was also scared that her boyfriend, Anthony Fresolo, would feel uncomfortable about her nude artwork. Despite that, she said he has been her biggest fan and is supportive by picking her up late at the studio and supporting her new projects.
“When I am trying out something new, he is the first person I talk to. He also encouraged me to try out other subjects that are more public-friendly, so he has been very, very very supportive I will say he is my number one fan,” Kinuthia said.
Anthony Fresolo said that when he saw Kinuthia wanting to try something new, he encouraged her to think outside the box and try an art that can speak to a broader audience, or create something more public-friendly, so that audiences can understand her message without knowing her.
“What can somebody else who’s coming in who doesn’t know you for the first time can look at this and go, ‘I get the message behind it like right off the bat,’” Fresolo said.
Kinuthia said after her boyfriend encouraged her to make public-friendly artwork, she then created her new favorite art piece, “Smothered I.” This piece is a drawing of herself with an African head wrap that represents status, marriage and family lineage. However, she said the fabric wrapped around her face in her art piece symbolizes cultural suffocation.
Kinuthia said “Smothered I” was the first public-friendly art piece she made and used for the press release, which was the first one shared publicly outside of the MFA studios before she told her family about her artwork. She said she asked her mother to interpret this painting, and her mother’s response brought comfort in identifying her artwork as a personal experience.
“I can’t believe I did that because it speaks so much to me, and then my mom has been facing a lot of issues, and she has been referencing my artwork and saying, ‘I feel like the woman in your painting, I feel the burden like the woman in your painting, I feel this burden, I feel this kind of suppression or an oppression,’” Kinuthia said. “That to me has been a win. A huge, huge win that my mother can identify and reference my work,”
Fresolo said Njeri’s process of drawing the “Smothered I” has over 10,000 pictures on her phone from different side shots of what she wanted to see from the fabric or side angle of her face. He said she then placed her phone on a tripod and sketched the image.
Kinuthia said she plans to start working on new art with other fabrics sent directly from central Kenya.
“My mom shipped a lot of fabric for me from Kenya, so I am very excited because I am now starting to make installation artwork,” Kinuthia said.
Ross-Andino said that éclat Law Firm Art Gallery enjoys seeing the artists’ artwork and feels motivated after hearing the artists’ backstories, and is pledging with Bridget Lake to put more money into the program and will continue to share its walls so that new artists can showcase their artwork with all sales going to the artist.
“Everything on the walls or statues are for sale, and we give 100% back to the artist, so the idea is not for us to make a profit or anything,” Ross-Andino said. “It is really to help them, but by helping them, we are also helping ourselves because it gives us a beautiful environment to work in.”
Lake said Ross-Andino and her team have been working with UCF for over a year, finalizing an agreement on how their partnership would take place so that the éclat Law Firm could give back to the community by helping UCF art students. Lake said the duo were struggling to figure out where the money would go, so they asked UCF where they needed the most support, and UCF mentioned the MFA program at the student level.
“UCF said to us, ‘to be honest with you, we don’t have enough support at the Masters of Fine Arts student level,’ and when that was said, Kevin immediately was like, ‘well, that’s where we need to put our money,’” Lake said. “We had discussed maybe doing two art prizes and splitting the $5,000 up, but we felt that it would be more of an impact if we did just one art prize and had it at that $5,000 level,” Lake said.
Lake said the partnership consists of assisting UCF art events, discussing the importance of supporting the Masters of Fine Arts program, and attending their art gallery openings.
Ross-Andino said that éclat is not only a law firm, but a place where people gather for social events, raise money to support charities and enjoy art.
“It’s a place to gather and have a lot of people. We do a lot of these social events, I like to do them around the art so we can get a double appreciation of people appreciating the art, the view, the vibe and not just be about the lawyers and law firms. Then, we also like to raise money to help the charities that we support,” Ross-Andino said.
Burrell said he appreciates how éclat Law developed a facility that serves as an art gallery during regular office hours, representing many diverse notable artists from Central Florida that may be overlooked due to travel and entertainment industries.
“We have a rich community of artists that often is overlooked because people are focused on the space coast or the theme parks, or they’re traveling through one place to another, but éclat Law represents Florida artists very well,” Burrell said.
Due to her recent success, Kinuthia said she met with one of the Women’s Caucus for Art Board Members, Judith Segall, at the Art Lovers Party.
“She thought my work was very impactful and invited me to join the National Organization,” Kinuthia said. “We have been in constant communication, and I am so glad to be a part of such a great organization.”
Kinuthia also said said a curator who manages the collection of artworks or artifacts is interested in her work.
“A curator, Kyle Eagle, reached out to me and said he loved my work so much, and is interested in working with me,” Kinuthia said.
Kinuthia’s art is currently on the éclat Law art gallery walls and will remain until August 2023.