By Tajudeen Sowole
Gerry Nnubia, Kelani Abass,
and Jefferson Jonahan join the list of artists on the international
representation of Omenka Gallery as the Joburg Art Fair, in South Africa
holds from September 7-9, 2014.
They swell the numberof
Nigerian artists, in recent times, that are partnering with local and
international galleries to tap from the sudden rise of African art at the
global market.
 |
| A periodic collage concept on Oba (King) Adetokunbo Ademola, by Kelani Abbas |
In the last one year,
Omenka has taken Nigerian artists to major international art fairs around the
world, including Art Dubai, (UAE), the Joburg Art Fair, Cape Town, (South
Africa) Loop, Barcelona (Spain), Cologne Paper Art (Germany), Art14, and 1:54
Contemporary African Art Fair, both in London (U.K.).
At the Sandton
Convention Centre, next month, Omenka
joins other galleries for the 5th yearly event. The participating galleries
include PGalerie Baudoin Lebon, Ed
Cross Fine Art, Jack Bell, ARTCO Gallery, Kijk Galerie, Bailey Seippel Gallery,
Erdman Contemporary, David Krut Projects, Museum of Modern Art Equatorial
Guinea, Everard Read Gallery, Fred Gallery, Brundyn+Gonsalves, Gallery Art on
Paper, Gallery MOMO, Goodman Gallery, Rooke Gallery, Barnard Gallery, SMAC Art
Gallery, Stevenson Gallery, Galerie Galea, Artspace and Whatiftheworld Gallery.
Few months ago, Omenka
took the woorks of J.D Okhai Ojeikere and a South Africa-based American
painter, Gary Stephens to Art 14 Fair in London, UK,. Then, it was like an
extension of Networks and
Voids: Modern Interpretations of Nigerian Hairstyles and Headdresses', a
two-artists exhibition at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Laggos last year.
The organisers of Joburg Art Fair, in a sttatement noted that the fair has survived beyond the
2-year expected life span of large scale art events in the harsh climate of the
South African cultural landscape. The Joburg Art Fair has a clear
focus to building a sustainable art-buying market by expanding beyond
established art-buyers and bringing the international and local crowd together.
On the works the artists being taken to Joburg
Art Fair, Omenka writes: "Nnubia’s
technique involves the skillful manipulation of his medium to a liquid, viscous
flow, often assimilating accidental occurrences and temperature adjustments,
depending on the effect sought. Here the artist offers critical possibilities
for painting, and explores the tensions between form and formlessness vital to
the tenets of modernism.
" Kelani’s
work increasingly probes the difficult relations of belonging and identity and
in particular, the shared history of man and machines through a wide range of
different media including sound. In addition to acrylics, oils, pastels and
charcoal, he employs modeling paste, disused printing machine parts, and
collages of magazine cut-outs and newsprint in his work.
" Jonahan draws on historical and mythological
references in most of his work. He employs a limited palette and restricts many
of his compositions to a single human figure or face, his sensitivity to light
and shadow, and the fundamental characteristics of the medium assuming the
focus.
The fair aims to create
a platform to provoke discourse on the development of modern and contemporary
African art.
No comments:
Post a Comment