By Tajudeen Sowole
When one of Nigeria's 'Living
Legends' and modernists, Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya exhibits under his representative
outlet, Lagos-based Mydrim Gallery, at the 2015 edition of Art Dubai, UAE next
week, a statement of consistence in native contents will be loud. Mydrim
Gallery is the oldest active facility in the business of art promotion in Lagos
just as Onobrakpeya is one of the early generation of formally trained Nigerian
artists whose career have imparted on over five decades of the country's art.
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Ibiabe Aro Oguan Ideogram in shall by Bruce Onobrakpeya
From
Onobrakpeya's native Urhobo, South-south, Nigerian origin through diverse
interactions with other cultures, particularly Yoruba, he has established a
profound skill as master of folklore in visual narration. His strength in
skills such as deep etchings, as well as self-innovation techniques like additive
plastograph, plastocast relief, bronze lino and mixed media assemblage sometimes
make his art cross into the terrain of contemporaneity, despite being a
modernist. In the era where art historians appear to have gone on holiday in
Africa, Onobrakpeya’s self-documentation of his work is legendary, particularly
with distillation art vocabulary peculiar to some of his techniques.
Mydrim has an impressive record with the
Nigerian modernity era of which Onobrakpeya belongs. For example, in 2007, the
gallery recorded what stands till date as Nigeria's largest gathering of master
artists when it showed Living Masters,
a group exhibition that featured the works of Abayomi
Barber, Onabrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo, Bisi Fakeye, El Anatsui, David Dale, Isiaka
Osunde, Muraina Oyelami and Kolade Oshinowo.
From March 18 to 21, 2015 when Art Dubai Modern, holds at Madinat Jumeirah,
UAE, Mydrim is showing alongside
other galleries from Africa and across the world. Artists from Africa in the
Modern section include Moroccans Mohamed Melehi b.
1936 and Mohamed Hamidi b. 1941 represented by Loft Art Gallery, Casablanca;
and a Cape Verdian master, Manuel Figueira as well as Ernesto
Shikhany from Mozambique showing under Perve
Galeria, Lisbon.
Debuted last year,
Art Dubai Modern, according to the organisers is exclusively partnered with
Mashreq Private Banking, and features “artists who proved influential in the
twentieth century, particularly through the vibrant modern period of the 1940s
to 1980s.” Each of the participating galleries presents a solo or two-person
show, “with works by masters from Africa, the Middle east and South Asia.”
The Advisory committee includes Savita Apte, Catherine
David, Kristine Khouri, Nada Shabout and Bisi Silva.
For
Mydrim Gallery's Booth MB at Art Dubai
Modern, the works on display, which were viewed via soft copies few days
ago, reveals how Onobrakpeya brings to the global gathering a rich oeuvre,
perhaps rarely assembled in recent time. The 32 works of the Nigerian master
that are going on display were created between 1960 and 1989. Some of the works
include impressions of 16 compartmented and one central imageries in foil metal
titled Nativity (1969); figural
drawings in etchings, Ekuroegbe
(1975); abstraction in metal foil, Kwamo
Olo (1975); motifs-populated Ibiebe
Aro Oguan in ideograms shall alter; and a panel of three, The Last Days of Christ.
Apart from being a member of a generation of Nigerian
artists known as the 'Zaria Rebels' - students from 1958 -1962 at the defunct Nigerian
College of Art, Science and Technology (NCAST) who challenged westernisation of
Nigerian art education
Onobrakpeya has been consistent in exploring as many
sources as possible to excavate native African contents, particularly from oral
and literary sources. In fact, most of his periods as highlighted in the solo
exhibition Jubilee Festival, when he
marked his 80th birthday in 2012 confirmed the anthropological context, which
most of his themes emit. The Jubilee
Festival exhibition focused Onobrakpeya’s periods such as Mythical Realism,
1957-1962; Sunshine, 1962-1967; The Mask and Cross, 1967-1978; Symbols
of Royalty, 1978-1984; Sahelian Masquerades, 1984-1988; The Mask,
1990-1995; Social Unrest, 1995-1999; Installation (1995 till
date).
But Mydrim, in its gallery statement for Art Dubai Modern, notes that
Onobrakpeya's periods are marked by the titles of his major solo exhibitions
such as Spirit in Ascent (1968-1978), Symbols of Ancestral Groves (1978-1985),
and Sahelian Masquerades (1985-1988). The gallery however adds that during
these periods, "he has produced oil paintings, lino-prints, serigraphs,
metal foil print sculptures, deep etching, plastocasts,
engravings, plastographs, and complex
contemporary installations."
More importantly in the career or periods of
Onobrakpeya is the panel in metal foil. As there seems to be quite a number of metal
foil works of the artist going to Art
Dubai Modern, the panels evoke the memory of the artist's local record auction
sale till date. From such memory cimes Greater
Nigeria, a panel of five and small cubic-like pieces, which sold for N9.2
million in 2008 at Arthhouse auction in Lagos was also Nigeria's record sale as
at then.
Mydrim describes his
technique as "inextricably bound up with the themes of his works." As
an artist whose career has touched generations of artists and collectors,
Onobrakpeya's work has been a reference point in African modernity and
contemporaneity. "Through his work he has contributed immensely to
artistic growth of modern African art and helped define a role for the artist
in postcolonial Africa," Mydrim argues.
In addition to his many art exhibitions in
Nigeria and abroad, Onobrakpeya has shown at the Tate Modern in London,
U.K; the National Museum of African Art
of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C; and the Malmö Konsthall in
Malmö. Some of his Honours include Human
Living Treasure Award by UNESCO (2006), National Creativity Award by Federal
Government of Nigeria (2010) and was the Gala Honoree Artist at the 50th
anniversary celebration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Washington DC(2014).
Founded
in 1992, Mydrim Gallery focuses what it describes as “global promotion of
20th century and contemporary Nigerian art.”
.
Art Dubai is held under
the Patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice- President and
Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai. The yearly gathering is held
in partnership with The Abraaj Group and is sponsored by Emaar and Julius Baer.
Madinat Jumeirah is home to the event. Mashreq Private Banking is the exclusive
partner of Art Dubai Modern.
At Art
Dubai 2015, Onobrakpeya and Mydrim joins others such as Shafic Abboud, Agial
Art Gallery, Beirut;
Shahid Sajjad, ArtChowk,
Karachi;
Gouider Triki / Hatim Elmekki
Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai;
Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam
Gallery Etemad, Tehran;
Mahmoud Hammad Green Art
Gallery, Dubai;
Shafic Abboud / Abdallah
Benanteur, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris; Farid Belkahia, Le Violon Bleu, Tunis;
Dia Azzawi / Marwan Meem
Gallery, Dubai;
Ernesto Shikhany / Manuel
Figueira Perve Galeria, Lisbon;
Jamil Molaeb Galerie Janine
Rubeiz, Beirut;
Kourosh Shishegaran Shirin
Gallery, Tehran / New York;
Aref El Rayess, The Park
Gallery, London.
At Art Dubai Contemporary, 72 galleries from
across the world are showing, including Africa-based such as Art Twenty, Lagos, showing Nigerian sculptor Olu Amoda
and Beninoise artist, Gérard Quenum; Vienna, Austria-based gallery, Galerie
Krinzinger, represents Nigerian, Jude Anogwih, from works produced during his
residency in Europe.
Ivorian photographer, François-Xavier Gbré
joins his countryman, Yéanzi at Galeries Cecile Fakhoury in the contemporary
circle; Sammy Baloji, represented by Galerie Imane Fares; and Cameroonian,
Pascale Marthine Tayou, at Galeria Continua.
Some of the other galleries from across the
world, showing at the event include Shafic Abboud, Agial Art
Gallery, Beirut;
Shahid Sajjad, ArtChowk,
Karachi;
Gouider Triki / Hatim
Elmekki Elmarsa, Tunis / Dubai;
Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam
Gallery Etemad, Tehran;
Mahmoud Hammad Green Art
Gallery, Dubai;
Shafic Abboud / Abdallah
Benanteur, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris; Farid Belkahia, Le Violon Bleu, Tunis;
Dia Azzawi /
Marwan Meem Gallery, Dubai;
Ernesto Shikhany / Manuel
Figueira Perve Galeria, Lisbon;
Jamil Molaeb Galerie Janine
Rubeiz, Beirut;
Kourosh Shishegaran Shirin
Gallery, Tehran / New York; Aref El Rayess, The Park Gallery, London.
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