Artist Juliet Ezenwa denied UK Visa

Writer Adewale Maja-Pearce is concerned. His wife, the artist Juliet Ezenwa, has been denied a visa to travel to the UK for an exhibition that would have opened in Portsmouth on July 29. Maja-Pearce, a dual Nigerian/UK citizen, has written an open letter to the British High Commissioner to protest the decision. See below.


Dear Sir,

I have the good fortune – as many would see it - of being a citizen of both Nigeria and the UK. For the last twenty years or so I have chosen to live in Nigeria, although I travel to the UK from time to time for professional as well as personal reasons. Almost ten years ago I married my wife, Juliet Ezenwa, the artist and a Nigerian citizen. Shortly after our marriage she applied for, and received, a six-month visa to travel to the UK but was unable to use it for reasons which she explained in her three subsequent visa applications, the most recent being just last month. On each of these occasions she was denied a visa, apparently because it was thought that she might abscond and thereby become a burden on the state, and this despite the fact that we have our home here and have no desire to go and live in the UK, at least for the foreseeable future.

On those three previous occasions she had been invited by family, including my mother, a British citizen who lives in the UK and had undertaken to host her for the duration of her stay. However, on this last occasion she was also invited by the King’s Theatre in Portsmouth, which invited her to hold an exhibition of her paintings from 29 July to 11 August 2011, the details of which are with you, including a letter from the director. I am now at a loss as to what to do.

Neither the Germans nor the Italians shared your view about her likely intentions when they granted her visas to travel to their countries, both times in connection with her art, and yet she cannot travel to her husband’s country for a similar activity. I know perfectly well that foreigners married to British citizens do not automatically qualify for British citizenship, and I know how difficult it can be for British citizens to have their wives join them in their own country, but it seems an abrogation of a fundamental human right that the wife of a British citizen is barred from travelling to her husband’s country for a specific period of time in pursuit of her legitimate business. I feel insulted on my own account and also on hers.

Many others have written over the years about the cavalier treatment meted out to Nigerians by the British High Commission and I know exactly what they mean. The pity, of course, is that successive Nigerian governments have never stood up for their own citizens, which is why other countries treat them with the contempt they do. Indeed, I witnessed it myself some time ago when I ran into a problem in neighbouring, Togo, with only my Nigerian passport to hand but that is a matter for Nigerians to solve.

As regards my wife, by all means continue denying her what seems to me her legitimate right but I can at least voice my sense of outrage that she – and, by extension, myself also - should be treated in this despicable manner.

Yours sincerely

Adewale Maja-Pearce

BBC: Overseas artists 'poorly treated' by visa system

Related post: Atukwei Okai - no show

Paintings by Juliet Ezenwa

Twins Seven-Seven, 1944 - 2011

News broke today of the death of Twins Seven-Seven, the great avantgarde artist of the Osogbo School, one of those that rose to prominence through the now historic art workshops organised by Ulli and Georgina Beier in the town on the River Osun in the 1960s.

Twins Seven-Seven - so self-named because he was the sole survivor of seven sets of 'abiku' twins born to his mother - had been known to be ill for some time; and in recent days some in the arts community and in the media had become increasingly concerned. Just yesterday journalists were beating anxious paths to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, where Twins was being cared for in the Intensive Care Unit. Family members rebuffed the journalists; the artist's children had apparently said they did not need anybody's help to look after their father, or so reporters were told; and the family did not want Twins' condition mentioned in the press.

Some handwringing in certain quarters as to what to do - afterall, Twins Seven-Seven was a world famous artist, a national treasure that long ago ceased to belong to his family and children alone, a UNESCO Artist for Peace. In any event, it was all too late, for today, death settled the matter.

His ex-wife, textile artist Nike Davies-Okundaiye, confirmed the passing. His last television appearance may well have been the recent CNN African Voices special on Okundaiye, a programme that did Twins Seven-Seven a bit of a disservice, in my view. African Voices neglected to mention the iconic name that would have chimed with thousands of people: Twins Seven-Seven. "Also an artist" was Christian Purefoy's casual reference to him, almost as an afterthought. And with that an artist of greater power was reduced to a mere footnote in Okundaiye's story.




Twins didn't do himself much of a favour in the programme either, he didn't know how, a lifetime of wildly creative eccentricity will do that to you. "I don't marry any woman older than 20, at my age," he said at one point, to the viewer's incredulity. His best years well behind him, he seemed to fancy himself a babe magnet still. "It's now I know I [was] very, very handsome," he said. But it's not so hard to see how women would have flocked to this prodigiously talented artist (singer, theatre performer, dancer, sculptor and painter) in his heyday. I remember reading an account by someone that visited his polygamous compound when Nike Okundaiye was still with him. The visitor remembered Twins-77 as a man loaded with animal magnetism.

For me, Twins Seven-Seven was one of the great culture icons of my youth. As a youngster in the town of Ijebu-Ijesa in the 1970s, the impact of three people on the culture reached us, though we were far from the scenes of their actions and reactions. The sacred trio were Fela, Susanne Wenger and Twins Seven-Seven. Their names reverberated all around us. I didn't even know Twins painted - who at my age had ever heard of 'Visual Art' then? His fame seemed to reach an apogee around the time of FESTAC '77, the year Fela released the rebellious 'Zombie' which all of us kids sang, knowing full well soldiers of the Nigerian army were the 'zombies'. We loved 'Zombie' even more because it had been banned. I was in Lagos that same year and the spirit of FESTAC '77 was in the air, which helped amplify in my young mind the myth of the man who also bore the numbers 7-7 in his name, like he was specially made for those brave times.

In the immediate reactions after the death, Deji Toye called Twins "the rock star of the Osogbo Art School", as indeed he was. His fame for us at a point in time, was on a par with Fela's. He had the plaited hair long before Urban Black music discovered corn-rows; he lived life in fast-forward.

Grown up, I became aware of Twins Seven-Seven's achievement as a visual artist; and have seen at least four of his pieces sold at Lagos auctions in the last year alone. I came to understand why he held adults and children in thrall all those years ago; and why his death is such a huge loss. A massively imitated artist, he stayed ahead of the pack and remained unique. In his fantabulous painted woodcuts, I see the world of D.O Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, Asiru Olatunde and Ben Okri.

Okri may have written about Azaro, but Twins Seven-Seven - born Taiwo Olaniyi Osuntoki - was Azaro personified. Editing a feature on the artist about a year ago, I decided to make it the cover story. On the cover, I wrote: Magical Realist - for that is what Twins Seven-Seven was.

Photo by Akintayo Abodunrin

Yinka Shonibare's Art-iculate Lecture

LAGOS: Yinka Shonibare with artists Peju Layiwola (m) and Rom Isichei at Terra Kulture on April 20.
In the pictures below we have the artist's mum; and he's shown with Yusuf Grillo, who his father had sent him to at YABATECH over 30 years ago when he indicated his intention to become an artist. Grillo had made time to talk to the young man that came calling; and on April 20, Shonibare said from the stage to Grillo in the audience: "I wonder sir, if you remember me, sir" - then the celebrated artist thanked his mentor.

The passing of GTB bank boss Tayo Aderinokun got me thinking of these pictures I always meant to post but never got round to (you get home sometimes and there's no electricity and your generator has packed up, the internet is down etcetera etcetera...). GTB sponsored Yinka Shonibare's Fourth Plinth Nelson's Ship in a Bottle, now on display in London's Trafalgar Square and Aderinokun attended the unveiling on in May 2010 . These pictures are from Shonibare's recent visit to Lagos, during which one of the chief reference points for the artist was his Fourth Plinth achievement, made possible by the late Aderinokun.

Shonibare gave the Art-iculate Lecture at Terra Kulture on April 20. Here are some press reports of the event and some of his other appearances in Lagos: Compass Newspaper, The Guardian, NEXT, Life House Fela! Reception/slides.

Photos: MW

Record N13.5m for Ben Enwonwu at Lagos auction

Was at the auction preview exhibition at Terra Kulture auction on Tuesday, May 3 and also in the hall was none other than Jossy Ajiboye (above), legendary cartoonist of Daily Times fame. Bolanle Austen-Peters introduced us. It was a lovely afternoon. I'd earlier been to Quintessence to catch the preview of Alimi Adewale's forthcoming exhibition, 'Sublime'. Had an interesting chat with the artist and Quintessence curator Moses Ohiomokhare. Then at Terra Kulture, spent some time viewing the lots and chatting with Mr. Ajiboye, who can hold a conversation.

He was not at last night's auction, where the big story was this ink on paper work, 'Untitled' (1980) from the Dance Series by Ben Enwonwu, which broke its estimate of 8 to 9 million naira to be sold to a Nigerian female bidder for N13.5millon, shattering the previous Lagos record for a Bruce Onobrakepa piece.

The Enwonwu bidder kept her cool as the hall applauded. By my count, she carted off another 8 pieces by the end of bidding, including the following:

• 'Dance to Enchanting Song Panel IX' by Bruce Onobrakpeya (N800,000).


• 'Face to Face' by Damola Adepoju (N200,000).


• 'Emperor Sundiatta's Daughter' by Moyo Ogundipe (N800,000).


• 'Dancer' by Nyemike Onwuka (N650.000).


• 'Divine Visitation' by Kolade Oshinowo (N2.2m).


• 'Texture Textile Feeling' by Ndidi Dike (N1m).


• 'Olumo Rock Abeokuta' by Ufuoma Onobrakpeya (N350.000).

Among her haul, Jossy Ajiboye's 'Arugba', sold for N350,000. Prices will be adjusted upwards slightly when the Buyer's premium is added by the auction complany.

Jossy Ajiboye photo by MW.

Auction Season

It's auction season in Lagos, with over 200 art pieces by some of the most significant visual artists this side of the hemisphere going under the hammer in major auctions by Terra Kulture and ArtHouse Contemporary in the next few days.

Left is 'Face' by Kainebi Osahenye, one of 113 pieces of modern and contemporary African art on auction at Terra Kulture tomorrow. Leading collector, Yemisi Shyllon of OYASAF, is the auctioneer.

Preview exhibition began yesterday at the venue, perhaps the premier arts centre in Lagos. Preview exhibition continues all of today, right up to 1pm tomorrow. View all 113 lots online.

Terra Kulture Auction: 5pm, Wednesday May 4 - Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Here's 'Home Sweet Home' by Abiodun Olaku, one of 100 lots set to go to the highest bidder in ArtHouse Contemporary's sixth auction. Demas Nwoko's 'The Wise Man' wood sculpture went for a whopping N9 million at their last auction, in November 2010. There was a hush in the hall as the bidding went up to 6m, 7m, 8m - and when the hammer went down, we just had to clap. Nwoko himself was there, and showed no reaction as far as I could see. All in a day's work to him I guess.

Preview exhibition for the latest ArtHouse Contemporary Auction is Civic Centre, Lagos on May 6 to 8. Preview extends to 10am and goes on till 1pm on May 9, the auction date. See the lots online.

ArtHouse Contemporary Auction: 6pm, Monday May 9 - Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Ehikhamenor's 'Entrances & Exits' exhibition

Artist Statement by Victor Ehikhamenor on his new solo exhibition 'Entrances & Exits: In Search of Not Forgetting' - opening at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos on Saturday:

Entrances and exits: A personal journey

In December of 2010, I left Lagos for a week to go back to my village, the scenes of my childhood and my ‘primary colours’, with the sole purpose of discovering what has influenced my art over the years. Some things I could pull from memory, but there were many I had forgotten or never really experienced. With a keen eye and a camera, I set to work; and what I discovered about my heritage and ancestral home was shocking to me. Until then, I did not realise that, over the decades of my art practice, I have unconsciously been feeding off of what was always there as part of my everyday life when I was growing up, which I never paid much attention to. The numerous shrine walls in neighbouring villages, the painted mud walls of my grandmothers, my uncles’ decorated rooms and other villagers’ walls were all beaming with different kinds of art. I photographed as many as possible, because it was obvious that many people no longer care about these ‘primitive and pagan’ arts.

With some of the walls and art already gone, and a very few left, I set to work on what remained. Some of the bold use of earth tone colours on walls reminded me of Mark Rothko’s large canvases. The valour with which colours, patterns and designs were engraved or drawn on walls, doors and other surfaces, fueled my drawings with chalks on the bare, dilapidated walls. Because I considered the chalk on wall drawings temporary, I decided to photograph them for posterity; and perhaps in so doing, I could show the world things that may not ordinarily be seen in their natural state.

I thought I would stop at the drawings on walls and doorways. However, I found myself thinking about the history behind the walls and the doors I drew on in the village, and so I decided to extend the experience to my studio in Lagos. People that have come and gone in my life over time through the passageways kept playing in my memory. My grandmothers, my father and many of my uncles that have left, came alive again. The doors I rejuvenated through art, were the same ones they traversed while alive. I began to look at the duality of the doorway, a passageway for entry and exit, life and death, night and day. Life itself is full of doors, whether real or imagined. I am yet to see any human that hasn’t gone through a door. Whatever we do when we enter or exit from any door in life is what shapes our lives as human on earth.

It is also pertinent to say that the works in Entrances and Exits go beyond physical doors; they signify transitions in life. In between the comings and goings, memories are built constantly. Memories of how we move from one phase of life to another, from childhood to adulthood, boy to man, girl to woman, life to death etc. The events that orchestrate these transitions are mystical, not physical and sometimes invisible, yet they manifest as some kind of doors.

All materials used in producing these paintings and drawings are physically cut in the shape of doors, in order to reveal another side of the same work. This is symbolic of the openings and closings that are associated with doors. Birth and death have doorways, be it a woman’s birth canal or the gaping grave on the earth.

Victor Ehikhamenor
Lagos, May 2011

It's been 2 years since Ehikhamenor's first exhibition on return to Nigeria. Here below is a video of my interview with him on Mirrors & Mirages which opened at Terra Kulture in Lagos on May 24, 2009.

• Entrances & Exits: In Search of Not Forgetting is at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos from Saturday May 7 to May 28.

Yinka Shonibare in Lagos

The latest in the CCA's Art-iculate Lectures series features Yinka Shonibare and it holds at Terra Kulture at 4pm on Wednesday, April 20.

According to the CCA, the Trafalgar Square London's Fourth Plinth artist "will discuss his artistic trajectory over the past two decades, presenting key themes from his vast and diverse artistic practice." Not to be missed.

Photography Exhibition by 'Kayode Adegbola

From the 23rd to 31st of December 2010, ‘Kayode Adegbola will be exhibiting his debut collection of 20 photographs, hosted by The Address 21 - a boutique hotel in Bodija, a residential area in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Adegbola has earned his reputation as a promising new generation photographer - the 20 year-old was winner of the 2008 "Fifth Element of Bar Med" and the 2009 "Reflections of Queen Mary" Photo Contests, both in his University - Queen Mary, University of London where he is currently in the final year of a bachelor’s degree in Law.

His areas of specialization include portraiture, street, cultural and travel photography, political and music photo-documentation. He has worked on several projects such as covering political rallies and protests in Nigeria and England, documenting the growth and development of the Nigerian Music Industry - video shoots, live performances, backstage and behind the scenes - with artistes like Femi Kuti and Ayo on stage at the London Jazz Festival 2007, Dr Sid on the set of his “Something About You” video with the Mo’Hits all stars, and R. Kelly at the Thisday Music Festival in Lagos in 2009.

Some of his other personal photo projects presently being developed include “The Polo Diaries” - a photo-documentary on Polo in Nigeria and the rest of the world; and “Vagrants” - a series on homeless people around the world, as well as other cultural and travel photography projects.

Adegbola is presenting a collection of 20 limited edition prints for viewing and sale in his home base, Ibadan. He describes this collection as one in which every piece means something special to him, and says that he is proud to finally be presenting it for viewing and sale and will be happy to provide a private viewing of the collection to some of his clients.

The exhibition will begin with an opening ceremony and private viewing of the collection at 12 noon on the 23rd of December 2010, with His Excellency, Governor Kayode Fayemi, The Executive Governor of Ekiti State as special guest; at The Address 21, situated on number 21 Oba Olagbegi Avenue, Old Bodija, Ibadan. Thereafter the collection will remain open to the public at the same venue between 10 a.m and 6 p.m until the 31st of December 2010.

For additional information: e-mail info@adegbola.com, kayode@adegbola.com, visit http://www.adegbola.com/ or call +2348033245564

African Time, an exhibition

Victor Ehikhamenor and I are recent returnees into the ever churning vortex that is the metropolis of Lagos. How he manages to stay so prolific as a visual artist, is a neat trick that I as a fiction writer have not mastered. Ehikhamenor's last exhibition, 'Roforofo Fight', held as recently as October, as part of Felabration. Now he's back with another exhibition, this time exploring Nigerians' complicated grasp of time, their invention of 'African Time', which necessitates a perpetual lateness.

African Time opens at 6pm on December 11 and runs till Christmas Day. It's at The Life House, 33 Sinari Daranijo Street, Off Ligali Ayorinde, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Blogging as a bourgeois pipe dream

Hello, patient blog readers, who have watched uncomplainingly while Wordsbody took a long snooze.

The failure to update this blog is never intentional. It's just that Lagos life throws a lot of challenges in one's way, like you get home and there's no light and you have to power your generator, which breaks down sometimes, leaving you clutching in the dark for rechargable torches or candles. Other times, there's no fuel because you've exhausted your supply or there's a fuel crisis. At times you get home very late at night after battling through traffic. Or you've paid for a month's unlimited internet supply and it just won't connect or it will take till tomorrow morning to upload the smallest file. At times like this, the furthest thing from your mind is the updating of a blog.

What am I trying to say? In the unending struggles of day-to-day existence in Nigeria, blogging can become a bourgeois pipe dream...

Lagos is an amazing city and there's always stuff happening on the arts scene there. One never has enough body or legs to make all the events. Like last Saturday I attended two art exhibtion openings: Resurgence, a two-man show by artists Gbenga Ajiboye and Ayoola Mudasiru at the Wangbojes Gallery in Ikoyi; and Ablode by Beninoise artist Midahuen Yves (known as Midy for short) at Quintessence. After the exhibitions I caught a play, Ahmed Yerima's 'Little Drops', produced by Lufodo Productions in collaboration with TW Magazine (Tosan Edremoda-Ugbeye, Joke Silva, Ropo Ewenla and Kate Henshaw-Nuttal gave their all in the play, which is about the plight of women in the Niger Delta crisis). Earlier in the week, November 22, I was at the ArtHouse Contemporary auction at the Civic Centre when Demas Nwoko's sitting wood sculpture of 'The Wise Man' went for a cool 9 million naira. Gotta love it. There was a hush as the bidding went into 5, 6, 7 million; and we all clapped when the hammer went down. Exciting stuff, and it happens in Lagos every day - pity one can't blog it all.

For a fortnight however, it seems many are going Rivers way, myself included. I'm posting this from Port Harcourt and my internet modem is cooperating. Above is the view of Port Harcourt from my sixth floor balcony at the Hotel Presidential.

I'm attending the Africa International Film Festival, which started on December 1 and ends tomorrow.
Taking over will be the Garden City Literary Festival which will have in attendance Wole Soyinka, J.M.G Le Clezio, Helon Habila and scores of others (December 8 to 11).
After that will be the CARNIRIV, Rivers State's own carnival, from December 13 to 18. I'm here till the close of the Garden City Literary Festival at least. I'll have to read about the carnival.

Ojeikere's photographs at the CCA

Opens tomorrow, Independence Day, at 3pm - displays till October 14.

Julien Sinzogan at the October Gallery, London

Julien Sinzogan: Spirit Worlds
29th September – 6th November 2010


October Gallery presents Spirit Worlds, a bold new series of works by West African artist, Julien Sinzogan, in his premiere UK solo exhibition.

Sinzogan originally trained as an architect and his use of painted pen-and-ink displays the astonishing, technical sophistication of a master draughtsman. His work is as much about the transmigration of African ‘soul’ – the persistence of her dreams, visions, ideas and unique cultural identities - across the Atlantic to the New World beyond, as it is about the return of the spirits of slaves to the African shores.

To understand Sinzogan’s work requires a certain familiarity with ideas characteristically found amongst West African groups such as the Yoruba and Fon peoples of Nigeria and Benin. In “vodoun” – one of the chief religions of Benin, it is understood that there exists a permanent link between the visible world that we inhabit and the invisible world of the spirit ancestors; a link with those who have gone before us.

Sinzogan’s vision, like his complex interpenetrating portraits, is both subtle and extensive. The result, however, even given his uncompromising regard for the grim realities of those darkest times of history, is both affirmative and - somehow – incredibly uplifting.

Events: Across Boundaries
In October, St George's Bloomsbury and October Gallery will join forces to stage workshops and events.
Across Boundaries is in conjunction with the Bloomsbury Festival (Oct 22-24), the 'Big Draw' and Black History Month. For further information about the workshops go to www.octobergallery.co.uk/education

October Gallery: 24 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AL

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7242 7367 Fax +44 (0) 20 7405 1851
art@octobergallery.co.uk www.octobergallery.co.uk

Mega Independence Exhibition in Abuja

The mega show known as 'The National/Historical Exhibitions' is on at the Velodrome, in the grounds of the National Stadium, Abuja, until October 31. Worth seeing.

Collage by John Okosun from photos by Molara Wood

Young at Art Exhibition

Here are the children the Biodun Omolayo Gallery's Young at Art summer programme; Omolayo is first left. The kids were photographed at the Lagos International Art Expo opening event at the National Museum in Lagos, on August 21. Here's an invitation to a 1-day exhibition of the kids' works, holding tomorrow:

You are hereby invited to the 6th edition of YOUNG AT ART CHILDREN ART EXHIBITION and DRAMA on Saturday 4th September, 2010

Venue: BIODUNOMOLAYO ART GALLERY, National Museum, Onikan Lagos
Take off time: 12:00 noon
For further clarifications, please, call BIODUN on 08023118105 or Toyin on 07035475111
Thank you
For Young At Art

Araism Movement 7 in Abuja - September 7

PRESS RELEASE

…Celebrating Nigeria at 50

Araism Movement 7 opens in Abuja

Venue

Thought Pyramid Art Gallery,
62, Parakou Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja

Date
Tuesday September 7, 2010
Time: 5pm


Exhibiting artists
Mufu Onifade, Abiola Mautin Akande, Oludotun Popoola, Abolore Awojobi, Oluwanbe Amodu, Esther Emmanuel, Kesa Babatunde, Jimoh Saliu Babatunde, George Egunjobi, Bolarinwa Olowo, Jonathan Imafidor, Odumbo Adeniran, Olukotun Temitope, Adegoke Akinola


For the first time since its inception in 2006, Araism Movement, founded by Mufu Onifade and joined by artists who share the same vision, journeys to Abuja in September for the seventh in its exhibition series. Originally designed to create a platform of annual artistic feast, the Movement has increased its tally of annual shows beyond one show per year. So far the Movement has between 2006 and March this year presented six shows to the appreciative publics. All past shows have been held in Lagos. The number of exhibiting artists has also increased from the initial six in 2006 to fourteen already screened for Abuja.

In the words of Mr. Bunmi Babatunde, Chairman, Universal Studios of Art who headed the Pane of Jurors, “In all, there were 88 works submitted by 15 artists. There was no regularity in the number of works submitted by each artist but submission per artist ranges between four and twelve works per artist. Sizes and thematic disposition also range from the repertoire of one artist to another.

“The task was to select a maximum of five works per artist. Terms of reference for the purpose of selection based on standard and artistic excellence was woven around unblemished use of technique, draughtsmanship, form, colour and various other elements and principles of Art. With this in mind the jury including Mr. Edosa Oguigo (President, Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria) and Mr. Oliver Enwonwu (Chaiman, Society of Nigerian Artists, Lagos State Chapter) as members, spent judicious time on each artist and his body of work. At the end of the tasking exercise, 40 paintings by 14 artists were selected from a large pool of 84 by 15 artists”.

This first outing of Araism Movement in Abuja is its own way of celebrating the 50th independence anniversary of Nigeria. It is an extension of the Thought Pyramid Art Gallery’s celebration of the same anniversary which it had begun in June this year. The celebration, according to Mr. Jeff Ajueshi, curator of the Gallery, “will continue till the end of the year”.

The exhibition will run till Friday September 17, 2010.

Araism Movement 7: Exhibition by Mufu Onifade et al - Thought Pyramid Art Gallery, 62 Paraku Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja. Opening 5pm, September 7. On till September 17.

International Art Expo Lagos

There’s over 400 works of art from about 30 galleries on display at the third International Art Expo Lagos, which opened in Lagos last Saturday at the National Museum, Onikan. The opening ceremony was chaired by Nduka Obaigbena, publisher of This Day Newspaper.

In the group picture below are children participants in the ‘Young at Heart’ programme of the Biodun Omolayo Gallery, based in the Onikan Museum complex. The kids were also at the opening ceremony, and some of the art pieces they created were on display for all to see.

In the other 2 pictures: the artist Nike Davies-Okundaiye; her daughters are in the other image.

The Art Expo closes on August 28, and there’s still time to get there and catch special events. A seminar is there today, with speakers like artist Sam Ovraiti and Richmond Ogolo (Director of the Art Barn, Ikeja, Lagos). Title of the seminar is ‘Plagiarism: The Question of Morality in Modern Art’.

There are lectures on August 28 by Goddy Leye (Coordinator, Art Bakery, Douala, Cameroon); and Shina Fagbenro, who will also be speaking on Plagiarism.

The International Art Expo Lagos closes Saturday 28th.

Photos: MW

Bruce Onobrakpeya @ Grillo Pavilion

Master artist Bruce Onobrakpeya, 77, photographed by MW with his works at the Niger Delta Cultural Centre during the 12th Harmattan Workshop in his hometown of Agharha Otor, Delta State, on 15 February 2010.

More images from Agbarha Otor later, but today Onobrakpeya is the subject of a major celebration at the Grillo Pavillion's 2nd Visual Art Fiesta. Details below:

Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Legacy

Saturday 3rd April, 2010

Grillo Pavillion 1

Sule Oyesola Gbadamosi Crescent

Off Obafemi Awolowo Way

Oke-Ota Ona (Near Grammar School)

Ikorodu, Lagos

Time: 11am

Programme

• 11am - Lecture by Dele Jegede (Professor & Chair, Dept of Art, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, US)
• 1pm - Viewing of Essentials of Bruce Onobrakpeya & his Disciples inside the Pavillion (curators Ejiro Onobrakpeya, Hakeem Balogun, Toyin Tubi & Olu Ajayi).
• 2pm - Lunch & Garden Party.
• 3pm - Interactive Session (comperes Jahman Anikulapo, Toyin Akinosho & Okechukwu Uwaezuoke).

RSVP: Ekpo Udo Udoma - 01-761-8025 / grillopavilion@yahoo.com

~

Update (related article)

• The leopard of Agbarha Otor

~

Kingdom of Ife

"If you're in London and have the time, you must go to the Kingdom of Ife exhibition at the British Museum. It is quite incredible: 100 sculptures created between the 12th and 15th centuries, depicting the great, the good and the bad, from Ife, Nigeria – once a great trading city and still the spiritual centre of the Yoruba people"
- so says the UK Guardian on the Kingdom of Ife exhibition of sculptures from The Source.

Widely considered the biggest exhibition you're likely to see in London this year, Kingdom of Ife's British Museum opening was attended by some of Nigeria's best collectors and art afficionados. The exhibition brings comforting echoes of the golden past, and raises disturbing questions about African treasures in 'exile' in Western museums (though curators are keen to stress that the pieces in the show are largely sourced on loan from the collection of the National Museum in Lagos). Let the debate rage on.

• Kingdom of Ife will not be seen anywhere in Africa (sigh), but you can catch it at the British Museum, London, until June 6. Unmissable. This exhibition will be worth every penny of the £8 ticket fee.

Update (related articles)

• Majesty, serenity and suffering from Ife's golden age
• A collection of exceptional importance and quality

Seated figure, Tada, Ife. Late 13th-14th century, copper. © Karin L. Willis/Museum for African Art/Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments

Studio Malick

It's a Christmas party; quite late, you'd imagine. The picture shows a young black couple. She's barefoot in her best sixties frock, he's in ­loafers and a snappy white suit. They're jiving ­together – not quite touching, yet, but with their heads dipped in close, both faces lit up with shy, almost disbelieving smiles. It's an ­astonishing ­photograph, full of intimacy and ­energy, joy and anticipation, taken in 1963 by the Malian ­photographer, Malick Sidibé, known as The Eye Of Bamako.

The above's an excerpt from last weekend's UK Guardian interview with veteran Malian photographer, Malick Sidibe, whose images capture the spirit of Bamako in the heady period around independence. The men in the photographs are the more flamboyant. One brought his motorbike into the studio and posed astride, his two women alongside. They have bro-bags (or what is it they call them these days) and look quite dandy in their Parissiene clothes. They hold up their hands so you can see their fancy wristwatchs (not unlike suspiciously camp rappers holding up their 'ice' now). Decades later, the men in Sidibe's photographs look pretty metrosexual - and these guys probably never knew a man could be confused about his sexuality. You were a man and that was it, and so you could hold another man's hand in a photograph and have the Eye of Bamako click away. Innocent times.

Malick Sidibe was born in 1935 or 36, "he's not too sure which" - ah, bless. I know a couple of folks like that!

• Previously unseen images of Malick Sidibe's open at the Lichfield Studios, London W10 on March 11. They will be on display till April 16.

Tonight in London

Late @ Tate

Afrodizzia, a series of performances and discussions around the work of Turner Prize winning artist Chris Ofili is on tonight at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1 - from 8pm.

Featuring Charlie Dark with Andreya Triana & The Speaker's Corner Quartet; scholar Bonnie Greer, Cleveland Watkiss and Larry Achiampong.

• Chris Ofili's exhibition is ongoing at Tate Britain until May 16.