Ogundipe returns in Mythopoeia

U.S-based artist, Prof Moyo Ogundipe opens his solo art exhibition titled Mythopoeia, from today, ending October 22, 2016, at Omenka Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos.

   

Cotyledon of Songs, 2016, mixed media, 97 x 123cm

The gallery notes that each work of Ogundipe evokes a distinct response. Excerpts from gallery statement: “For example, Rhapsody is likely to arouse excitement with its bold, predominantly warm palette and sharp, diagonal thrusts, while Cotyledon of Songs, from the following year, is more likely to instill calmness, with its comparatively subtle, cool palette and intricate layers of patterning.

“Nonetheless, it is up to viewers to determine their own course through the paintings, and in this process, they may find meaningful parallels with life’s journey. In the end, the works, like the best myths, open up thought, providing forums for contemplation of the world in which we live.”

  

Prof Ogundipe, a prominent Denver painter, was born in Nigeria and fled its military dictatorship in the 1980s. Before leaving Nigeria, he was an art teacher, a graphic illustrator, an award-winning television producer/director and an independent filmmaker. In spite of all his creative pursuits, he has always considered himself first and foremost a visual artist.

  

Ogundipe has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from The Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.

   
He has exhibited extensively in Nigeria, Europe and the United States, including The Orlando Museum of Art, the Maryland Museum of African Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and recently, in African Renaissance: Old Forms, New Images at the Denver Art Museum.

Ogundipe’s paintings have been described as hypnotic, colorful and densely patterned. He paints in the rich tradition of the Yoruba culture of Nigeria and attempts in his paintings to evolve a style that is a fusion or synthesis between his traditional heritage and his Western education.

In 1996, Ogundipe was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, and in 2005, he was invited to become a member of Africobra, an organization founded in the 1960s whose membership is comprised of distinguished African American artists.