BARELY 48 HOURS after landing in Nairobi, I’m on a leafy terrace with a multinational crowd of Ghanaian businessmen, European architects, and Kenyan artists—some just home from the Venice Biennale, others on their way to Frieze Miami. The setting is electrified with chatter, and I’m deep in conversation with painter Shabu Mwangi. His exhibition—hosted by GravitArt, an online gallery that creates pop-up shows throughout the city—is the reason we’ve gathered at this private residence in the buzzy Westlands neighborhood.
I’m here not because I’m part of the jet-setting art-world elite but because of Hemingways Eden, a boutique hotel opened in 2021 by Anna Trzebinski. (She originally built it with her late husband, Tonio, as their family home in 1992.) I chose the Eden because of its
