By Tajudeen Sowole
A season of Lagos art would
be incomplete activities without an exhibition by some of Nigeria's leading
artists whose immense contributions to the city's art hub status cannot be
discounted. The exhibition is a recent yearly series gathering, which started
four years ago as a platform for artists to assert their control over what the
organisers fear as an attempt by a section of promoters and mangers to distort
the creative industry.
Started as Distinction series in 2012
and just held as Infinite Treasures II at Terra Kulture, Victoria
Island, Lagos, the 2016 edition asserts the artists' pedigree as a fulcrum on
which the art market of Lagos is rested. Artists of Infinite Treasure II
include Kolade Oshinowo, Reuben Ugbine, Abiodun Olaku, Bunmi Babatunde, Sam
Ovraiti, Edosa Ogiugo, Duke Asidere, Alex Nwokolo, Olusegun Adejumo, Fidelis
Eze Odogwu, Diseye Tantua, Mufu Onifade and Segun Aiyesan.
With an average of three to four works per
artist, the Olaku and Odogwu-curated Infinite Treasures II brings onto
the Lagos art scene the true colours of the city's identity: art rich in great
aesthetic, conceptual and intellectual contents combined. In his unpretentious
representation style, the most senior of the artists, Oshinowo, 68, continues
his themes on ladies' fashion, imploring fabric collage to capture his revered
'repetitive' themes.
Having painted landscapes, mostly in
narratives of time, using different periods of sun's transitory motion in the
sky, Olaku's masterly strokes on the subject could be a study in astrology.
With paintings such as Fellowship - (Study, Oil on Canvas, 2016; The Passage Oil. On Canvas, 2016; and Peace of Gold’ Oil on Canvas, 2016,
Olaku's palette adventure into skyline's
spiritual beauty continues.
In a soft medium dominated exhibition Infinite
Treasures II, three sculptors: Babatunde, Ugbine and Odogwu bring the
balance of taste. Each artist, interestingly, has distinct style technique and
medium that has overtime, stressed the resilience of sculpture in Nigerian art landscape. While
dragging his very successful Possibilities Series, again, into this edition of
the yearly exhibition, Babatunde adds Iyawo Osingin (Fresh Bride), a piece in Ebony wood, dated 2016.
Asidere's visual restlessness on his
environment takes a hopeful note in ‘Well Used Brain I (Oil on Canvas, 2016), suggesting that despite a
decaying social structure, the future isn't exactly tragic.
For those who have been tracking Nwokolo's Oju
Series, here comes the artist's new style in Holy Mary, Sister Chioma and Oyin Dudu, all oil on
canvas and dated 2016.
Ladies' theme artist, Adejumo moves his brush
strokes into the glamour world of women - away from the usual owambe social
circle - in a piece titled Diva. New entrant, pop art satirist, Tantua
is at his vintage in Cool Kobo Is Better Than Hot Naira, a thoughtful piece
for Nigeria's era of moral rebirth.
Two other new entrants, Onifade and Aiyesan
bring into the gathering, each, their distinct texture of painting techniques.
Onifades's araism comes with more subtle tone while Aiyesan's identity
of aged canvas breeds diverse shapes of portraits.
Sponsored by Mr Frank Momoh-led Frot
Foundation, Infinite Treasures II, according to Odogwu, confirms the
pattern of different sponsors for two of the main series. "Mr Kunle Tinubu
of Trojan Estates sponsored Distinction series while Momoh for Infinite
Treasures series."
Olaku recalls how his planned solo exhibition
in 2013, trigered the series into "a self-propelled group exhibition of
seven carefully-selected established and respected artists."
And basically, the crust of the exhibitions is
to celebrate artists and put them in the driver's seat of the creative
indsutry. Olaku has never hidden his suspicion for "pretenders" whose
activities and perception of art, he argues, are threat to artists' career.
In a joint curatorial
statement, Olaku and Odogwu however assure that "merit in professionalism
is a key watchword that consistently guides the selection of participants
behind the scene." They stress that "we do not intend to compromise
on that.
In alignment with one of our
core objectives to ensure that Nigerian contemporary art grows in character,
content and value, the periodic themes are generated to illustrate and stress
the spirit of the purpose."
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