Which Kain Wine? 31 October – 1 December 2019
Kindly supported by Grace Lake Cares Foundation Curated by Grace Lake Cares Foundation & hFACTOR
hFACTOR 26 Moloney Street, Lagos Island
TEGA AKPOKONA SHEILA CHUKWULOZIE RAHIMA GAMBO JERE IKONGIO LAOLU OBENDE BUBU OGISI COCO OLAKUNLE LOGO “LOGOR” OLUWAMUYIWA NENGI OMUKU YADICHINMA UKOHA-KALU
TEGA AKPOKONA The unique use of light in Akpokona’s work interplays with rich subtle colours, capturing the depth of human emotions. Using a colour language reminiscent of the old European masters, his latest body of work examines the human experience shaped by different cultural influences and identities. By depicting contemporary black figures, Akpokona invites the viewer to a journey of self-reflection and interpretations influenced by individual perception of reality. Born in Benin City, Nigeria, Tega Akpokona is a painter currently living and working in Lagos. He studied Fine Art at the University of Benin, Nigeria, graduating in 2011. Recent exhibitions include Nigerian embassy, Berlin, Germany (2019), Art X Lagos 2018, Lagos, Nigeria (2018), Tafeta Gallery, London, UK (2018), Terrakulture, Lagos, Nigeria (2016).
SHEILA CHUKWULOZIE Sheila Chukwulozie is a multimedia artist, and in her recent work, she tackles the politics of “behaving oneself” in a Catholic-colonial body through juxtaposing local rituals, modern technology, traditional myths and movement styles. She is drawn to exposing internal and consistent dialogues — coded through discipline and punishment and language like “conscience”, “moral compass” or even “The Holy Spirit”. Sheila’s performances and installations have been shown in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Czech Republic and the USA. From August 2017- August 2018, she travelled as a Thomas J Watson fellow studying with traditional mask makers and cloth weavers in eight African countries. Currently, she is working on a transcontinental collaboration with her Trinidadian performance partner, Amir Hall. Together they are excavating the stories of “ordinary men” in Nigeria and Trinidad in order to reimagine the biblical classic the Book of Job as a dirge for the post-colonial man. She will be artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation, London, from January – March 2020. Ife Obele, Ndi Obele “A curation of notes written to Self during my one-year journey around the continent apprenticing with cloth dyers, weavers and mask makers. Ife Obele, Ndi Obele is a series of illustrations that calls the audience to observe how the daily choices and habits are the pixels of what we call Self. The quick thoughts, the small words, the long journeys between where you are and where the taxi is taking you, the silence in the eyes of a Rwandese morning… Ife Obele, Ndi Obele is an ode to the smallness of my big life. It is an insistence that the difference between what matters and what doesn’t is up to me. Especially as a Nigerian, Igbo woman, there are a list of expectations society holds up to my face as a manual for how to live a good life. Ife Obele, Ndi Obele, is a resistance to the larger sense of duty and over-ambition and instead, a surrender to witnessing ease and joy.”
JERE IKONGIO Jeremiah Ikongio is a multimedia artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. Ikongio works in new media, performance, painting, photography and installation. His fabric installations investigate and re-think the social and cultural importance of African fabrics within the continent. The work on display is part of Ikongio’s latest series of works titled Kitenga. This project (titled after a mix of words: Kitenge and Kanga) researches and explores the phenomenon of the disappearing textiles from West and East Africa, including places like Asho Oke and Okene (Yoruba, Nigeria), Kente (Ashanti, Ghana), Kereke Woven Tapestry (Niger) or Bokolonfini (Bambara, Mali), Kanga (Kenya, Tanzania etc). His work has been shown in Nigeria and internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; 5th Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art; International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Durban; the 11th Biennial do MERCOSUL, Porto Alegre amongst others. He is also a Magnum Foundation Fellow and a Digital Earth Fellow.
RAHIMA GAMBO Tatsuniya II (2019) is the second chapter of Gambo’s Tatsuniya series and it features an ongoing collaboration between the artist and students of Shehu Sanda Kyarimi school in Maiduguri, Nigeria. The film uses children’s games, poetry and exercises from a Physical Education book for secondary school students as a framework for weaving the narrative together. We see the students moving from a classroom to dense green forest in dreamlike scenes, expanding on the social surrealist language the artist developed in 2017. These spaces act as a backdrop to the choreographed moving sequences the students helped created in the Tatsuniya workshop - a storytelling workshop the artist holds with the students to develop the narratives we see in the film. Tatsuniya means a fable, short story or riddle in the Hausa language. Rahima Gambo is a multimedia artist who came to artistic practice by working independently on long-form trans media documentary art projects. Gambo explores the narrative and experimental capabilities of walking and its intersection with documentary storytelling, female bodies, psycho-spiritual-geography, socio politics, urban environment and autobiography. Her work engages with documentary-making and involves an expanded visual language that includes drawing, film, sculpture, installation and sound.
LAOLU OBENDE Looking at the rapid changing of the city and its impact on its inhabitants, Obende’s work explores the ways in which Nigerian economy has shaken its people, disrupting their reality and forcing them to question long-held beliefs. Obende’s paintings shed light on hidden emotions bringing attention to the broad and colourful spectrum of the many blocks of our reality. Laolu Obende is a painter currently working in Lagos, Nigeria. He grew up in Ibadan and following his father’s steps, who also was an artist, Obende had quickly been drawn into creative expressions at a very young age. He moved to Lagos when he was 11 and studied Fine Art at the University of Benin, Nigeria, graduating in 2005. Obende’s creative influences span across several disciplines while his curiosity keeps broadening his life perspectives. After his first solo exhibition in 2009, the artist started his business and founded Levitate Lagos - an advertising agency based in Lagos serving several multinationals and local brands across several industries.
BUBU OGISI Bubu Ogisi creates wearable art pieces and abstract spaces with unconventional sustainable recycled materials and heritage traditions from all over the African continent. Through moving visuals and space design she conveys lost heritage stories as a form of silent protest to post, neo-colonialism portrayed. Bubu Ogisi is a creative entrepreneur born in Lagos, Nigeria, living between Lagos and Nairobi. She grew up in multiple cities with a BSc in Computer Science from Regent University, Accra, Ghana and an MA in Fashion Business from Ecole Superieure des Art et technique de la Mode (ESMOD) Paris, France. Bubu Ogisi is Creative Director of the Nigerian contemporary women's wear brand, IAMISIGO, Kenyan brand Vitimbi and is one of the four members of the art collective hFACTOR. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg, Germany (2018), Troppen Museum “Fashion Cities Africa", Amsterdam, Netherlands (2017), Brighton Museum, UK (2016), Art21 “Platforms 21” Lagos, Nigeria (2015).
COCO OLAKUNLE The two photos on display are a part of a wider series of photographs portraying young Lagosians, an investigation on the issues of identity within the context of the city of Lagos. The artist delves into an on-going journey of self-discovery which explores ways of seeing and understanding what it means to live and learn in this city. Coco Olakunle is an independent Nigerian-Dutch photographer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With a background in Human Geography, she is able to contextualize people in their own environments. Olakunle uses her signature cinĂŠma veritĂŠ style photography to capture the stories she finds important. The artist uses her camera to engage with humanity, opening the doors of inclusivity and full-spectrum representation.
LOGO “LOGOR” OLUWAMUYIWA Logo “Logor” Oluwamuyiwa is an artist based in Lagos working in photography and mixed media. Oluwamuyiwa‘s work investigates the human existence by capturing and retelling stories from perspectives that are often overlooked, ignored and taken for granted. The artist curates his digital archive project on Lagos via www.monochromelagos.com, where he also writes about photography. He is a member of the Video Art Network Lagos and a member of the Centre for Contemporary Arts. Fragility of Hope “A tribute to a resilient and hopeful odyssey in Lagos. This mixed media project highlights the duality of stories inherent within the materials used and how they are applied in the urban experience, from obvious stories to the banal as well as the abstract. These collages reflect the unique assemblage of people and activities within the city of Lagos”. Plain Glass & Mirrors “The glass and mirror are combined with photography SAV prints and in some cases bold primary colours, collaged to reference personalities and economic status with scale, shapes and type of glass which also includes repurposed car windshields”. Lotto Canvass “These are old pundit backdrops from the street level Lotto centres popularly called Baba Ijebu. Numbers here summarizes the state of all commerce from stock exchange to road side transaction. Resilient pursuit for commercial success in an urban space, gambling for shortcuts to wealth and fanaticism about receiving miraculous aid”.
NENGI OMUKU Nengi Omuku’s work is inspired by the politics of the body and the complexities that surround identity and difference. Omuku states: “with every journey, I consider how human beings position themselves in relation to other beings. Foremost on my mind are the ways in which the body needs to adapt in order to belong. It is constantly selecting and gathering its identity, mentally, physically and emotionally.” The artist approaches painting as a documentation of events that unfold around her — a moment-by-moment embodiment of a nonlinear narrative that is translated onto the canvas. Omuku’s creates anthropomorphic forms, which float across surreal landscapes. Her figures encourage us to look beneath the surface using metaphors and themes that explore race, identity, mental journeying and mutual belonging. Nengi Omuku (born 1987) is a Nigerian artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. She completed her BA and MA in fine art at Slade School of Fine Art in London, graduating in 2012. She is the recipient of several awards including the British Council CHOGM Art Award, presented by HRH Queen Elisabeth II. Recent exhibitions include Unmasked with SMO Contemporary Art (2018), At Work with the Arthouse Foundation (2018), Stages of Collapse, September Gray Art Gallery, Atlanta (2017), the Armory Show Focus: African Perspectives, New York City (2016), A State of Mind, Omenka Gallery, Lagos (2015) and Jerwood Drawing Prize (2014), Jerwood Gallery, London (2014).
YADICHINMA UKOHA-KALU Ukoha-Kalu’s work is motivated by the idea of beauty that evolves in individuals’ imagination over time. In her recent body of work, the artist plays with an imagined language system, expressed in precise single line drawings that become multi-directional according to number counts. With each iteration, she invents processes to engage line and thoughts, experimenting with factors like emotional states, environment and other stimuli in the moment of creation that could affect the results. The artist uses research and documentation of everyday life to instruct her work, resulting in true exploratory experiences taking place in imaginary spaces. Born April 1995 in Lagos, Nigeria, Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu is an experimental artist currently living and working in Lagos. UkohaKalu started showing her work in 2015 in the group exhibition ‘Woman in Bloom’ and over the past four years has featured in group and solo exhibitions in Lagos and around the world. UkohaKalu works with a variety of media from painting, photography, sculpture, to film and digital media.
Exhibition conceived and supported by Grace Lake Cares Foundation