Red List of West African Cultural Objects at Risk

Book Cover

After years of looting and carnage against cultural objects in Africa, which was made more pronounced by the 2012 conflict in Mali, a publication by International Council of Museums (ICOM), which focuses West Africa is perhaps a strong alert for museum managers.

  Titled Red List of West African Cultural Objects at Risk, and featured a Mali "Emergency" section, the publication, according to ICOM was made possible BY the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the U.S. Department of State.

 The book aims to highlight

How Ambode’s ‘Five Theatre’ project May Revive Cinema at Grassroots

By Tajudeen Sowole
A recent pronouncement by the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode has brought hope of returning arts, particularly, cinema going culture to Lagos' grassroots beyond the  curent state of cinemas in shopping Malls. For several decades pre and post independence, traveling theatre of the Yoruba language, which had  its roots in the old western region, spilled into Lagos territory and later generated a vibrant cinema going culture that lasterd till 1990s.  

Gov Akinwunmi Ambode and other guests during the opening of Heartbeat The Musical…A New Beginning

The Governor, who spoke at a stage play titled ‘Heartbeat The Musical…A New Beginning’ held at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos and directed by Olu Jacobs and Joke Silva,

How Art Confronted Recession In Year 2016

President Muammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha; Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo, during the artists' visit to Aso Rock. Picture: By Tolani Ali.

By Tajudeen Sowole

LIKE other sectors of the economy, the art market started the first quarter of 2016 with a journey into uncertainty. And by the time the Federal Government officially confirmed that the economy had entered recession, the effect of weakened purchasing power was already hovering over art patronage, so suggested the lure that followed.

 However, 'the show must go on.' The art exhibition spaces and auction circuits - two main outlets for the art market - still filled their regular spots, perhaps,

The Wedding Party in town

Comedian, Ali Baba and actress, Sola Sobawale in The Wedding Party

Described as “Box Office Smash Hit” on the first week of opening across cinemas in Nigeria, few days ago, The Wedding Party’ a film from Elfike Collective, is a romance story.

  The plot: Dunni Coker (Adesua Etomi), a 24-year-old gallery owner

A Stern Mirror Of Preludes, Pretexts, Presumptions

 

A set of sculptures titled ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by Peju Alatise

By Tajudeen Sowole

Populated with miniaturised nude figures, a body of work by Peju Alatise, shown as Preludes, Pretexts, Presumptions at Kia Showroom, Victoria Island, Lagos, accosts behaviourial patterns, prosecutes and perhaps convicts norms into the penitentiary of perception. But like every artist who wields

Futuristic Space For Artists of Connectivity

By Tajudeen Sowole

Whatever Badejo Abiodun, Adeleke Akeem, Owolabi Ayodele And Babatunde Bolaji hoped to achieve with Connectivity Of Vision may not exactly get the right attention now. The idea of what the artists described as individual solo exhibitions under one collectivity appeared like a futuristic concept that more artists and galleries might embrace in the years to come. 

A painting, Sunday Morning, by Abiodun Badejo

 In a developing economy such as Nigeria's where less privileged artists are incresingly struggling to have a debut solo art exhibition, a space that allows two or more artists have pool of resource for solo within a group show is indeed worth taking 

Smithsonian Museum Director Retires in March

After eight years in office, Johnnetta B. Cole, 80, will from March 2017, steps down as director of Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.

Johnnetta B. Cole

   Recall that Cole, in 2014 made unfavourable headlines after she opened an exhibition of works from the private collection of family of controversial actor, Bill Cosby. Sadly, the opening of the exhibition titled Conversations coincided with the raging news of the sexual harassment and rape allegations against Cosby.
 According to Washington Post, Cole's exit will create "another senior level opening" at the museum. 

Auction record for Sunny Ade’s guitar with drawings by Ehikamenor

KSA's vintage fender guitar sold for N52.1 million naira in Lagos

Designer-artist, Victor Ehikamenor, on Sunday made his auction record with a drawing work on legendary Nigerian Musician, King Sunny Ade’s guitar. Sold for N52.1 million at a Lagos auction, the guitar which was auctioned by Dr. Jogun Onabanjo, a certified Auctioneer and Chief Executive of Onabanjo and Onabanjo & Co, was unveiled at the KSA‘s 70th birthday concert tagged

Biomimetics... Music legend, Uwaifo 'solves' sculpture challenges

By Tajudeen Sowole

 When Prof. (Sir) Victor Uwaifo, a music star of legendary status with profound career in the academia, stepped out into the visual arts space, for a solo exhibition, the creative enterprise in its full length came to fore. Inside Nimbus Gallery space of Bogobiri, Ikoyi, Lagos, Uwaifo used the opening of his solo art exhibition titled ‘Biomimetics Of Sculpture: And What Is Art?,’ to unveil his research work on three dimensional art as well as launch of a 12-track new music album, You Are The Finest (Wabugie).

  

Sculptural depiction of Captain Moore and Oba Ovonranmwen (1897) by Prof. Victor Uwaifo

Expressed in sculptures using materials such as resin and ivory – most times with glazing – Uwaifo’s work is explained in the academic process of creating art. Most of the human figures on display, including his self-portraits and depiction of 1897 Benin punitive expedition, are, perhaps, appropriated as museum pieces, given the scale of themes involved.

Berthing Shonibare's Wind Sculpture VI in Lagos

British Deputy high Commission, Simon Shercliff (left) Director programs British Council, Louisa Waddingham; Director Visual Art British Council, Emma Dexter; representative of MD GTB Bank Babajide Sipe and the exhibiting artist, Yinka Shonibare MBE, during the exhibition in Lagos. 

By Tajudeen Sowole

When Nigerian-British artist, Yinka Shonibare (MBE) opened his exhibition, the ‘clique’ character in Lagos and Victoria Island art community shed its arrogant weight and moved to Ikeja, an unusual axis for art events. The occasion was a Lagos, Nigeria stopover for world tour exhibition of Shonibare's Wind Sculpture VI.

  Shonibare, one of African Diaspora's biggest art exports to the world has been touring cities with his new public space work, Wind Sculpture series since 2014. Currently, the sculpture, a six metre high, is on display at Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Ikeja, Lagos, till January 2017.

 In 2013, two editions of the work were exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England, and also at Cannonball Paradise, Gerisch Stiftung, Neumunster, Germany in 2014. The Wind Sculpture series, which investigates the curious link between art and science within the context of sailing in the wind and relation to fabric, clearly, finds a spacious air to breathe at Ndubuisi Kanu

Across Borders Of Beyond Functions

I Love Syria by Ceramist, Ato Arinze

By Tajudeen Sowole

Functionality of applied art or design, most often, blurs the conceptual and aesthetics contents. For a Lagos-based ceramist, Ato Arinze and his Cameroonian counterpart, Djakou K. Nathalie, the perception or reality that has been moulded around appropriation of ceramic art must be put in proper perspective.

   

Jointly, the two artists found a common space in Beyond Functions, an exhibition, which just held at Moorehouse, Ikoyi, Lagos. Each artist took different thematic approach: Arinze stuck to pottery, stylised to create diverse imageries while Nathalie

How 'New cubism' of Onwuka Exhaled In Exodus

By Tajudeen Sowole

Shrinking resources, generated from economic survival, and leading to displacement of people as key factors confronting policy makers across the world, stray into the palette of Nyemike Onwuka. With what appears like the artist’s new period in geometric art, the central theme about migration gets louder in his combined oeuvre and new techniques.

 

From Blurred Fantasie Series

 Simply titled Exodus, Onwuka's body of work, which just showed at Signature Beyond Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos hovers over two vulnerable victims of economic and political migrations: women and children. Interestingly, the artist's Exodus is not just an extension of documented facts, from which reference could tap, but also include his "personal experience" and encounter

Confronting State Of The Nation With Who Will Blink First?

By Taajudeen Sowole

Capturing a state of the nation's battle for survival, art, in its full strength was deplored in Lagos, with photography/film, poetry, performance, installation and mixed media painting. The space: a distinct art exhibition part of Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF 2016), held at Freedom Park, Lagos Island energises creative expression as relevant voice in nationhood narrative.

 

Nkechi Nwosu-­Igbo's I Will Huff and Puff and Blow Your House, installation view. Sticks, ropes plastic cups, nails, mats, papers. 2016

 For the artists involved in the exhibition titled Who Will Blink First? - curated by Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo -  it's a familiar space. Photographer, Aderemi Adegbite;  activist-performer, Jelili Atiku; installation artist, Nwosu-Igbo, painter,

Standing Before Kings In A Debutant's Pastel

By Tajudeen Sowole

In a Lagos art space, where the stake is increasingly high, self-taught artist, Tayo Ayelowo debuts with portraiture, a sub-genre that is easily vulnerable to critique. Currently, and for the next one week, Ayelowo's pastel pieces of Nigerian monarchs are showing as Standing For Kings at Mercedes Benz Centre, Lekki, Lagos. Ayelowo, a lawyer by formal training, has, over the years done portraiture of monarchs that she says are inspired by diversity and richness of kingly regalia.

   

Tayo Ayelowo’s pastel capture of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi

An exhibition of portraits from Nigeria's royal settings, either in photography or