ART & DESIGN

For Gbemi Elekula, art, design go with ladies' sanitary culture
CEO of DreamHome, Gbemi Elekula.

FROM formal training in a construction discipline to five-year career in the financial sector, Gbemi Elekula was prepared, consciously or not, to be an entrepreneur. But neither the real estate, nor the financial sector would win her area of interest in adding value to Nigeria's business circle - the creative industry won. Read more.

 

Cast, welded metal art practice disparity in post-modern Nigeria

A welded metal sculpture titled Sunflower by Olu Amoda. Pic: c/o of the artist.

TRACKING art of sculpture, from ancient Africa to post-modern period, has exposed time disparity between the two basic sub-medium of cast and welded metal. While the cast medium made its formal entry during colonial period, welded metal didn't emerge into mainstream space until the late 1970 to early 1980s. MORE.
 
 
 
Ajueshi's plans for young professionals in art management skills 
 
Jeff Ajueshi, Founder/Artistic Director of Thought Pyramid Art Centre Abuja and Lagos. Pic: c/o Thought Pyramid.

ART galleries in Nigeria, like most parts of the world, are the fountains from which the passions of artists, collectors, curators and other professionals in the visual culture economy get watered. MORE.

 
Against suspicion, curators struggle in post-independence Nigeria
Godwin Adesoye's 'New Market' (oil and charcoal on canvas, 5ft x 4ft, 2015). Pic: c/o Translucent S.I.

DURING 60 years of post-independence Nigeria, curatorial practice was hardly active in mainstream exhibition circuits. Strangely too, some artists in Nigeria, still do not agree that artistic presentation requires critical input from a professional not involved in the creation of their art; they view curators through the prism of suspicion. MORE.

At 60, Ayoade shows 'Faces and Figures', celebrates with 'twin sister' Nigeria

Uncertainty (alcohol ink on yupo paper, 2019), by Mukaila Ayoade. Pic: c/o the artist.   

FROM working in Lagos, Nigeria, to his current base in Chicago, U.S., artist Mukaila Ayoade brings into a single space his oeuvre of over 30 years. MORE.

In Suowari's monochrome strokes, beauty, fashion blossom

  Ama' (ink and acrylic on paper, 5 x 8ft, 2020) by Jacqueline Suowari. Pic: from the artist.

DESPITE being the oldest form of art, figurative painting has been defined differently by each generation of artists across cultures. In the unfolding world of 21st century contemporary art that is giving figurative painting diverse tones, Jacqueline Suowari is one of such artists, whose brushstroke and ballpoint of fluidity are in romantic flow with monochromatic contents. MORE.

Dokolo, dos Santos art patronage in web of massive 'corruption'

Olu Oguibe’s obelisk titled Monument for Strangers and Refugees, (50 ft, 2017). Pic: c/o Kassel Square.
 
In the crossfire of prosecuting alleged massive corruption of one of Africa's controversial families, the dos Santos of Angola, some contemporary art collections are being trapped. Read more.
 
Ghariokwu In ‘Dance Floor’ of Fela’s Album Cover Design
Lemi Ghariokwu, speaking to guests during the exhibition, in Lagos.
As long as Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, remains a recurring subject on global creative space, designer, Lemi Ghariokwu, would not stop being a human encyclopaedia on the controversial musician. For the 20th year anniversary of Fela’s death, it would have been an incomplete landmark not to hear from Ghariokwu, who was the musician’s album cover designer for almost two decades (1974-1992). READ MORE.
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 Filling Mosaic Art Vacuum With Olaopa's Mission
By Tajudeen Sowole

 AS one of the oldest media of visual representation, mosaic art, whichdates back to the third millennium BCE, is still, in contemporary era, mostly used for outdoor works. Perhaps, confining it to outdoor, particularly in a country like Nigeria where the demand for it is not as regular, has been the reason for its decline and weak appreciation.
Mosaic mural for outdoor wall covering of a private building in Lagos.
Also, being a medium of art that requires an artist's painstaking attention in placing spots of materials to form clusters of images, read more.
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 Ofili, Adjaye Get Queen's Honours

Chris Ofili
Nigerian-British artist, Chris Ofili and his Ghanaian-British counterpart, architect David Adjaye, are on the list of Queens’s knighthood honours in the New Yearear.   Adjaye is the lead architect of the Smithsonian's new museum of African American History in Washington, DC, among several note able works of his.  Ofili, a
 read more.
 .---------------------------------------------------------------------------Experience Nigeria Art of Resilient Patronage

By Tajudeen Sowole
Art competitions as crucial inputs that come with honours such as awards across various other areas of art patronage and promotion are no doubt the oil that lubricate art appreciation in the Lagos circuit. And when the specific art completion in focus is the  oldest in this part of the world, Experience Nigeria Art Show, nothing
Clara Aden’s Hopephobia won the star prize at Experience Nigeria 2016. 
short of rich presentation comes as expectation.
  Interestingly, every edition, Experience Nigeria Art comes in modest texture, but richness in art contents and presentation. For the 2016 edition, artists, patrons and other professionals were honoured with African Art Awards, a spice of Experience Nigeria Show and art competition. MORE HERE.                ------------------------------------------------------
How Art Confronted Recession In Year 2016
President Muammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha; Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo, during the artists' visit to Aso Rock. Picture: By Tolani Ali.
By Tajudeen Sowole
LIKE other sectors of the economy, the art market started the first quarter of 2016 with a journey into uncertainty. And by the time the Federal Government officially confirmed that the economy had entered recession, the effect of weakened purchasing power was already hovering over art patronage, so suggested the lure that followed.
 However, 'the show must go on.' The art exhibition spaces and auction circuits - two main outlets for the art market - still filled their regular spots, perhaps,
to keep the spirit of art patronage alive. In fact, a new entrant MORE HERE.
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A Stern Mirror Of Preludes, Pretexts, Presumptions

 
A set of sculptures titled ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by Peju Alatise

By Tajudeen Sowole
Populated with miniaturised nude figures, a body of work by Peju Alatise, shown as Preludes, Pretexts, Presumptions at Kia Showroom, Victoria Island, Lagos, accosts behaviourial patterns, prosecutes and perhaps convicts norms into the penitentiary of perception. But like every artist who wields
their creative freedom in a complex task of reminding everyone to visit the mirror,  the verdict in Alatise’s incendiary concept is piercing.
  A visit to the exhibition, three days after its formal opening, presents the artist's oeuvre in an internal, three-way competitive texture between the materials used, technique applied and the theme in focus. But with the truncating of social structures in developing countries, particularly the Africa region, the theme in this exhibition MORE HERE.
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Futuristic Space For Artists of Connectivity
By Tajudeen Sowole

Whatever Badejo Abiodun, Adeleke Akeem, Owolabi Ayodele And Babatunde Bolaji hoped to achieve with Connectivity Of Vision may not exactly get the right attention now. The idea of what the artists described as individual solo exhibitions under one collectivity appeared like a futuristic concept that more artists and galleries might embrace in the years to come. 
A painting, Sunday Morning, by Abiodun Badejo
 In a developing economy such as Nigeria's where less privileged artists are incresingly struggling to have a debut solo art exhibition, a space that allows two or more artists have pool of resource for solo within a group show is indeed worth taking 
a look at. For the artists of Connectivity Of Vision, there came the support of READ MORE.
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Biomimetics... Music legend, Uwaifo 'solves' sculpture challenges




By Tajudeen Sowole

 When Prof. (Sir) Victor Uwaifo, a music star of legendary status with profound career in the academia, stepped out into the visual arts space, for a solo exhibition, the creative enterprise in its full length came to fore. Inside Nimbus Gallery space of Bogobiri, Ikoyi, Lagos, Uwaifo used the opening of his solo art exhibition titled ‘Biomimetics Of Sculpture: And What Is Art?,’ to unveil his research work on three dimensional art as well as launch of a 12-track new music album, You Are The Finest (Wabugie).
  

Sculptural depiction of Captain Moore and Oba Ovonranmwen (1897) by Prof. Victor Uwaifo

 Expressed in sculptures using materials such as resin and ivory - most times with glazing - Uwaifo's work is explained in the academic process of creating art. Most of the human figures on display, including his self-portraits and depiction of 1897 Benin Punitive Expedition, are, perhaps, appropriated as museum pieces, given the scale of themes involved. MORE.


Berthing Shonibare's Wind Sculpture VI in Lagos
Wednesday, 7 December 2016



British Deputy high Commission, Simon Shercliff (left) Director programs British Council, Louisa Waddingham; Director Visual Art British Council, Emma Dexter; representative of MD GTB Bank Babajide Sipe and the exhibiting artist, Yinka Shonibare MBE, during the exhibition in Lagos. 
By Tajudeen Sowole

When Nigerian-British artist, Yinka Shonibare (MBE) opened his exhibition, the ‘clique’ character in Lagos and Victoria Island art community shed its arrogant weight and moved to Ikeja, an unusual axis for art events. The occasion was a Lagos, Nigeria stopover for world tour exhibition of Shonibare's Wind Sculpture VI.

  Shonibare, one of African Diaspora's biggest art exports to the world has been touring cities with his new public space work, Wind Sculpture series since 2014. Currently, the sculpture, a six metre high, is on display at Ndubuisi Kanu Park, MORE.




(First published 9/7/2012)
BY TAJUDEEN SOWOLE
Organised by Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN), a recent show at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos, to mark World Interiors Day, art, craft and other areas of visual arts categorised as accessories in design exposed the economic paradox of Nigeria, where majority live in extreme poverty amidst vast riches of the country.

From paintings, miniature figural and abstract table pieces to ceramics and other works that either serve both decorative and functional purposes such as window blinds and mirrors, the show depict that even in the period of distress, luxury could be an elixir.

The show also offered an opportunity to appreciate the contribution of interior designers to the creative industry, especially in the areas of crafts and arts.
One of the works from IDAN
What exactly is World Interiors Day all about? As IDAN president, Anslem Tabansi explained, it’s a yearly global event initiated by the International Federation of Interior Architecture/Designers (IFI) to bring to the public the roles of practitioners in improving the environment.tMORE.

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