By Henry Akubuiro
The outstanding, loud, deep, resonant voices of ten artists at the ongoing Boom exhibition at the deluxe Alexis Galleries, Victoria Island, Lagos, are making the joys of many art collectors and art lovers fuse into higher bliss days before Yuletide. The carefully selected artists are a blend of emerging and established practitioners with specialties in painting. They include Olamide Ogunade, Benson Oseghe, Meshach Charity, Oluwaseun Ojebiyi, Gbemileke Adekunle, Jahyém Jombo, Paschal Ugwu, Ibrahim H. Bamidele, Richard Adusu and Fidelis Odogwu.
This important exhibition, which opened on December 14 and runs till the eve of Christmas, December 24, is a showcase of diverse painting styles and metal sculptures. The dynamic works in this collection capture the energy and burst that define contemporary life, blending everyday moments with subtle reflective undertones. Patty Chidiac Mastrogiannis, Founder, Alexis Gallery, said Boom aimed to “inspire viewers to reconnect to reality, by transforming the intangible into tangible action. In a society paralysed by inaction, this exhibition motivates viewers to take proactive, responsive efforts towards positive change.”
Shedding more light on the ongoing exhibition, the curator, Uche Obasi, informed that Boom “explores the dynamic interplay of energies that arise from deliberate action and continuity within one’s familiar spaces through a diverse range of mediums from metal, including oil paint, pastel, and acrylic.”
It, thus, draws us to ruminate on every day’s reality of productivity, exchange, engagement, reflecting our multifaceted yet collective participation and adaptability in the virtuous cycle of life and the crux of the human condition.
Meshach Charity is exhibiting two works: “Behind Bars” and “My Green Dress”, interrogating identity and life through personal experiences from childhood. Meshach’s “My Green Dress,” features a polka-dotted oil painting. The painting depicts a woman with a self-detached gaze, lost in an elusive quest for self-reaffirmation.
Gbemileke Adekunle is exhibiting three works: “Black Pearl IV”, “Wild Card” and “Emerald”, works which navigate between states of solitude and tranquility, allowing him to explore his past mental health ordeal through his expressively figurative works. The artist said “Wild Card” places emphasis on beauty of resilience, moreso, the owner within to pull through various emotional demands, “Black Pearl IV” is a symbol of hope.
Ibrahim Bamidele is exhibiting “A Moment with Self”, “Love in Colours” and “Supplication”, works with religion and social undertones. Each of the three works has a halo on the heads of the personas, saintlike. This holy aura derives from his Christian background, as he explained: “Many of my works communicate my religion, which is Christianity.” Operating with a non traditional approach with mediums and materials, it appropriates news prints and Ankara fabrics.
The son of a photographer, Oluwaseun Ojebiyi works bear unique testimonies to past and present captured through camera lens. “I grew up seeing his works and this type of camera,” he said. His paintings, “Passing the Touch” and “Fresh Beginning”, depict beautiful teenagers clicking away with old Yashika cameras, leaving behind long lasting testaments.
For Olamide Ogunade, themes of memory, culture, identity, and the illusion of forgotten moments are central in his works evoking nostalgic experience. His works, “Passing the Touch”, “Echoes in Stillness” and “Moment of Reflection”, document memories. Heavily experimental, he depicts a past replete with ups and downs. Faced with repeated failures, he decided to face his fears, and triumphed eventually. “Passing the Touch” explores age-long domestic tiers, cultural preservations and heritage.
Richard Adusu, a Ghanaian artist, is exhibiting two works: “Chest Out” and “Scarf of Many Colours”. He said via a video chat from his base in Ghana that the first work depicts Africans being bold enough to stand up for the vulnerable and things that enslave them and supporting one another, while “Scarf of Many Colours”, called “duku” in a Ghanaian language or “gele”, reflects the personality of the wearer and the message she wants to communicate – beauty of many colours.
Fidelis Odogwu sculpt forms and meaning centred around malleable existence of things and self-percept. Functioning as a guest artist, Odogwu is exhibiting “I am Innocent”, “Self Love” and “I am a Princess”. He told pressmen, as an artist, he tried to represent himself to tell people who he is and defend himself at any point in time. Explaining the concept behind “I am Innocent”, he said it showed his innocence in the rot in the system: “I am not part of anything that is happening in Nigeria; I am an artist, I’ve played my part, and I am doing it.” His “Self-Love” revels in the notion of the lure and strength that emerges from self-knowledge, adaptability and acceptance.
Jahyém Jombo’s paintings feature emotively-charged, anthropomorphic figures set against the backdrop of everyday domestic reality. Blending realism with subtle hints of surrealism, his work mimics the classical painting traditions of the medieval age. In his piece, “Why Don’t We?” Jombo captures the transformative power of love, conveying the deep-seated human desire for companionship, commitment, and progress in marital life.
Pascal Ugwu, in his works, merges painting with different, spontaneously rendered techniques. Ugwu paints distinctively eye-popping portraits of characters and persona that invite all to look beyond their subtle emotional gaze and gestures. “Yellow Balloon”, one of his paintings, captures the elusive state of hope, through fragile moments of mixed emotions and expectations.
Ben Oseghe confronts socio-political conditions within the backdrop and complexities of human condition. Ben Oseghe works primarily with acrylic and oil, combining mediums such as charcoal, graphite, paper collages, and pastel. His work, “Wheelbarrow boys,” from his Man of the Year series, sheds light on overlooked and under-valued livelihood in his local community, where marginalisation of identity, status and station of life underlines the place for social responsibility and contributions.
The exhibition is sponsored by Macallan, Cerebral Palsy Center, The Guardian, Aina Blankson, Global, Mikano, Cobranet, Coca Cola, Bombay and Sapphire, Tiger, Haier Thermocool, and Artcafe.