Duke Asidere, Gerry Nnubia, Ndidi Emefiele
(Nigerians) and a Cameroonian, Joel Mpah Dooh are four artists whose works go
on display from February 26 to March 1, courtesy of Omenka Gallery, at the
second edition of the Cape Town Art Fair, V & A Waterfront, South
Africa.
With the exhibition,
Omenka strengthens its international exploits for artists of African origin or
base. Last year, the gallery took quite a number of Nigerian artists to art
fairs in Europe and the Middle East.
One of works for Cape Town Fair, a mixed media on canvas, Eva, 2014, by Ndidi Emefiele,
According to Ladun Ogidan at Omenka Gallery,
each artist comes into the Cape Town Art Fair with different "primary
point of investigation." For example, Dooh, she notes, "is
preoccupied with experimentation and has enjoyed international critical acclaim
with his paintings and multi-media works.” The artist, Ogidan explains, is
inspired by the tactile reality of his environment though is mostly an inner
traveler. He works on paper, canvas, corrugated iron and most recently acrylic
sheets. “The Cameroonian also incorporates earth, paints, clay, packaging,
wood, and chalk to explore the fragility of individual human identity and how
we reinvent ourselves while moving and evolving in the city.”
For cubist,
Asidere, it’s about themes that engage contemporary African politics. “Through
visual metaphors, the artist comments on the everyday human drama that
surrounds him; political, social, psychological or cultural. Furthermore, he
adds an element of surprise to these sketches of human drama by infusing them
with irony and humour.”
Asidere’s broad
oeuvre, the gallery says, includes headless or limbless figures and faces of strangely
hybrid beings as well as densely populated urban landscapes, accentuated with
thick strokes of vivid colour. And in recent times, his work, it has been
observed “has turned to car enamel paint, which he applies with a spray gun to
produce emotionally charged works that retain figurative subject matter, and at
the same time emphasise abstract qualities.”. Among the painter's high point on
canvas is "simplicity of form and expressive line."
For Nnubia's texture
of canvas that "offers critical possibilities for painting," it also
delves into what the gallery describes as "tensions between form and
formlessness, vital to the tenets of modernism with his acrylic flow.” The
artist’s technique features "skillful manipulation of his medium to a liquid
viscous flow often assimilating accidental occurrences and temperature
adjustments, depending on the effect sought."
In the rendition by
Emefiele comes the traces of combined ancient Egyptian and Yoruba aesthetic flavours.
Omenka notes how the artist "adopts
the historic practice of using the body symbolically, dating back to the
sculptures and paintings of ancient Egyptians, whose “god-like” pharaoh was
often depicted much larger than ordinary mortals as in his erect, stiff posture
signifying unyielding majesty and authority." Also, the heads of the
female figure, it has been observed ,"are large, bearing semblance to
those of traditional Yoruba sculptures, carved disproportionately to other
parts of the human body to emphasize its function as the seat of wisdom, upon
which the destiny of an individual is carried." The strength of the
artist in depiction of the female body "becomes a contested site and an
important source of information, through which she challenges established
notions of beauty."
In gathering the
artists for the Cape Town event, the main focus, according to Omenka was
"a strong contemporary outlook" that engages the traditions of
African art history. The result is "in iconic imagery that captures
intense and challenging moments."
Omenka is one of the
leading art galleries in Nigeria and represents a fine selection of established
and emerging contemporary African and international artists working in diverse
media. Omenka stimulates critical discourse on African art through solo, group
and large themed exhibitions accompanied by informed, scholarly catalogues.
In ensuring
sustainable presence for African art within a global context, Omenka
participates in major events like Art
Dubai, Joburg Art Fair, Cologne Paper Art, Docks Art Fair, Lyon, LOOP,
Art14, and 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair.
Additionally, Omenka encourages a cross fertilisation of ideas by collaborating
with leading galleries across the world to bring the work of many international
artists to Nigeria, often for the first time. Omenka Gallery also organizes
several workshops and residencies to encourage curatorial and professional
artistic development.
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