Art-at-Ouida is a walk-through exhibition space, showing accessible, contemporary artworks that won’t burn a hole in your pocket. Utilising the three floors of the newly-refurbished Ouida, this exhibition takes you on a journey through the Arts. At Ouida, you are sure to find something to fall in love with.
Curator’s Note
The June edition of Art at Ouida presents three dynamic artists that document the beauty of human feelings, emotions and anatomy!
Omoyeni Arogunmati, Ronke Komos and Faith Michael all have the above themes as sources of inspiration. This month’s curated selection features 17 paintings from these rising artists who curiously explore varied degrees of abstraction and portraiture through their practice. Their artistic styles draw roots from hyperrealism, figurativism and impressionism primarily using oils and acrylic paint.
Omoyeni Arogunmati’s series of identical portraits explore both intimate and exterior characteristics of the human head. Her representation of human facial gestures through the build up of acrylic and oil on canvas infuses texture and an expressiveness that cannot be achieved by realistic paintings alone. Her other impasto works, unlike the portraits, direct their focus to the formal qualities of the work instead of the subject matter. See “Evening Twilight” and “Long Bend”.
Ronke Komos uses her “acrylic paint pour” technique to showcase her love for colours as seen in “Return to Calmness” for example. The dramatic and marbled effect of the technique is deemed to be an exposé on emotional activism – a way of using her works to discover unrehearsed emotional responses to her works. Ronke also inserts abstract figures into her paint pour works in order to add a participatory element to her practice as seen in “Ready, Set, TOSS” and “Ready, Set, TOSS 2”.
Faith Michael’s figurative works retain strong references to the female figure with less abstract elements. The paintings in the show feature Black women standing mostly frontally before the viewer. Even though the paintings do not imbibe meaty concepts; they engage viewers and urge them to find new ways to read them.
Our human emotions, feelings and anatomy have been a source of inspiration for artists since time immemorial. Our existence continues to be a running thread that links both modern and contemporary artworks. In recent years, however, artists have been faced with an increasing need to use their practices to raise emotional awareness and a better future, mentally.
This month we share 3 rising artists who are looking to impact the Nigerian art space using their art as a beacon of hope, light and change.
Thank you to the enthusiasts, artists and collectors that have supported us since inception. If you are joining us for the first time, welcome and do enjoy our sixth presentation!
Seun Alli
Curator and Founder, JCAA
