The last time renowned
artists, Tayo Adenaike and Obiora Anidi, held a joint exhibition was 31 years
ago at the Italian Cultural Centre where they created an unforgettable,
powerful visual language that though expressed in different media, shared a
deep congruity.more...
Currently, the Enugu-based
artistes are holding another joint exhibition entitled Akalaka: Lines of
Destiny at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Lagos.
The exhibition runs till July 15, and it is sponsored by the Wheatbaker Hotel,
Global Energy Company limited and Ruinart.
Besides being an impressive
showing of 20 works by each artist, Akalaka is an important home coming for the two influential
artists of the Uli tradition, who have not had a major showing in Nigeria since
the mid 1990’s.
Tayo Adenaike said: “I am a
graphic artist which I do for a living but painting is what I do for the joy of
painting with the hope that it will give me recognition some day. I paint
mostly at weekends and at nights which is unusual, because my life does not
depend on painting but it is something that I enjoy doing and I don’t think
that I will depart from it till I die.
“I have worked predominantly
on water colours because it is quick to dry and it is easier for me to handle
water colours and travel abroad to hold exhibitions. Which I have done since
1990, I have exhibited in the United States of America and other parts of the
world, so for me, Akalaka is home
coming for me.
“I am coming back home to
exhibit after more than 20 years that I have not exhibited in Nigeria. As a
painter, you need other people to tell you what they think about your work, I
have learnt a lot going outside the country but home is home and it is good to
come back home to see what people think about my works,” he said.
Obiora spoke on his art: “I
am a sculptor. In art practice, I have had privileged background because I was
supported early by my parents and teachers. I earn my living by talking because
I am a teacher. I teach and I also do studio work. After I graduated form the
art school, I have used traditional media.
“But, in 1983/84, I had a
contract in Nnewi, where I worked with some of my colleagues and when we came
back from launch, I saw some few scraps on the floor being run over by cars, I
saw a clear picture and I took it home, cleaned it and looked at it. That
really inspired me to search further to see how I can use consciously by design
using the elements of lines depicting what I saw to draw, which gave birth to a
series of exhibitions that I had called Livewire.
“The trouble is too much for
a studio artist where you do a collection to tell your stories and you take the
trouble of running around to hold your exhibition. When Sandra approached me in
2014, I felt that someone can take the heat off me.
Adenaike and Anidi are part
of the Uli art movement, which originated at the famous Nsukka Art School of
the 1970's and 1980's, spearheaded by internationally acclaimed Professor, Uche
Okeke, of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The globally celebrated
artists who’s joint show Akalaka, literally means “the lines on the palm of
your hand” connoting destiny in Igbo, present sculptures and watercolors which
draw inspiration from "a repertoire of Uli motifs found largely in
Igbo land, which is a dying art form; it was solely the preserve of women, who
either used it for body adornment or wall decorations of sacred shrines"
Adenaike explains.
Adenaike, who was born in
Idanre, Ogun State, in 1954, runs a successful advertising agency, and only
paints during sleepless nights and on weekends. He came to Eastern Nigeria in
the early 1970’s on a government scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor’s
and Masters degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he developed a
mastery of the difficult watercolor technique under the tutelage of Professors
Uche Okeke and Obiora Udechukwu. His unique compositions exude the very essence
of raw human emotion with a few deft lines and a masterly application of
colour.
Living for over 41 years in
eastern Nigeria, Adenaike, who speaks fluent Igbo, presents intricate works
which reflect his dual ethnic heritage; he has taken part in over 62
exhibitions, mostly in the United States and Germany, and his works are in the
permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African
Art, as well as in the “Museum der Weltkulturen” in Frankfurt Germany.
On the other hand, master
sculptor Obiora Anidi, born in Enugu in 1957, has dedicated his years to
teaching and research in academia, and is currently Chief Lecturer at the Art
Department, Enugu State College of Education (ESUT). He graduated for the
Institute of Management & Technology (IMT) in 1982, one of Nigeria’s
leading art schools, before pursuing graduate and post-graduate degrees in
Educational Technology, at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Enugu State
University of Technology, respectively.
Besides taking part in
numerous exhibitions in the United States, as well as in Jamaica, Germany, and
Italy, Anidi co-founded the famous Aka Circle of Exhibiting Artists, along with
Adenaike and other great artists from the Nsukka Art movement, AKA, was a
leading and influential art group in former Anambra State which organized
annual exhibitions in the 1980’s and 1990’s, at a time when the Nigerian
contemporary art landscape was just burgeoning.
Anidi, entirely in his own
space, creates his unique black and white sculptures out of a mix of cement and
marble, which he deftly intertwines with thin strips of metal creating unusual
and powerful sculptures reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian renaissance, while
clearly drawing on important Uli and Nsibidi traditions.
Whether you marvel at the
profound simplicity of Anidi's three legged sculpture “Ekwu Ito” trinity of the
extended family, which clearly shows a strong external family structure
harbouring deft internal politics and alignments, or you admire the poetry and
symbolic significance of Adenaike's layered visual echoes in “Our Hope Lies in
the Begotten Son”, we see an incredible, beautiful interplay of thoughts and
expressions across starkly different media.
Adenaike's layered human
forms with their intense expressions remind one of the complex tension between
emotion and the spirit, which can be seen in perfect alignment with Anidi's
concave spaces and solid marble planes representing symbiotic relationships,
beautifully intertwined with metal accents; both artists echo the interplay
between existential perceptions vis-a-vis physical form and energy, and the
traditions as well as the restrictions of culture and society.
Curator of the exhibition,
Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, said: “We are delighted to share this impressive body of
work with Nigeria and the world. It is important that we celebrate the works of
artists who have had a major influence on Nigerian art, and don’t enjoy the
same local exposure as Lagos or Abuja based artists. Akalaka presents two master artists, amongst the best of
contemporary Nigerian art, to a new generation of local art enthusiasts and
collectors,” she concluded.
The story by OLAMIDE BABATUNDE was published in The Sun newspaper on Friday, May 1, 2015
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