Founder of Riverside Arts and Design Studios, Yaba, Lagos,
Olu Amoda, is exhibiting his solo exhibition entitled, Fringe at Art
Twenty-One, in Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
.......more
The event runs till April 16, while two days later , there
will be an artist talk and panel discussion on the topic: “New tendencies in
contemporary” at 6pm.
Amoda is Nigeria’s famous sculpture artist and a lecturer at
the School of Art, Design and Painting, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He
is exhibiting 25 newest artworks.
Fringe brings together Amoda’s recent experimentations in
sculpture, drawings and installation as he explores questions of privacy and
public space in the Nigerian urban environment. His use of unconventional
materials and processes, combined with an interest in pertinent social and
political issues, chart new depths by examining the relationship among
surveillance, religion and the female form.
Some of the works exhibited include “Eye of the Storm”, “Wit”
1, 2 and 3, “Last Supper”, “NSA
Columns and Balls”, “Queen of the Coast II”, “On the Red Beach”, “AAV”, “You
Can’t be Serious”, “Making Up II, “In the Red, Aftermath”, “Rain Dance”,
“Cautious Optimism”. Others are “Large Sun Flower”, “Stepping”, “Laptop”, “For
Your Selfless”, “Sunday Outing”, “Face” III and IV, among others.
Central to Amoda’s investigations are the influence of
technology and how virtual communications shape and describe identity, noting
the hyper-consciousness of self-representation that is brought about by the
digital revolution.
He focuses attention on the prevailing presence of the
camera in our daily lives. Whether self-imposed or brought about by increased
modes of surveillance, the relevance of cameras and recording devices in these
works suggest a cultural obsession with our ‘public’ selves.
Art Twenty-One, in its gallery statement for Fringe, notes
that, set amid these works, are new series that reference religion and the
sacredness of the private, as well as depictions of women that highlight the
conflicting forces of sexuality. These nude and semi-nude women, shown in
varying states of undress, represent the workers of the commercial sex industry
in the country.
Rather than preaching morality or situating the pornographic
as taboo, Amoda celebrates female sensuality, eschewing the line between
vulgarity and intimacy, he says the public and the private are two sides of the
same coin and, intimately, inform one another.
Amoda is a sculpture and mixed media artist, who has become
a leading voice in contemporary arts community in Nigeria. He graduated in
Sculpture from Auchi Polytechnic in Edo State and later had a MFA from Georgia
Southern University.
Last year, he received the top prize at the Dak’Art
Biennale, Dakar, Senegal.
He has participated in several exhibitions such as the
Victoria and Albert Museum, (UK), The Museum of Art and Design (New York),
Skoto Gallery, New York, Didi Museum, Nigeria and WIPO headquarters,
Switzerland, among others.
He has completed residences at Villa Arson (Nice, France),
The Bag Factory (Johannesburg, South Africa), Appalachian State University
(Boone, North Carolina) and the New York Design Museum. Art Twenty-One is a
platform dedicated to contemporary art in Nigeria. It intends to contribute and
solidify the growing art scene in Lagos as well as position the city as a major
force in the international art world.
The story was first published in The Sun newspaper on Saturday, March 28, 2015 on page 42
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