ALIMI ADEWALE

Alimi Adewale is a painter and sculptor who explores urban issues and the lives of everyday people in cities. His portraits, landscapes and nudes combine elements of minimalism and abstraction to evoke the movement and intensity of the cosmopolitan environment. In 2016, Adewale participated in the Konstepidemins residency in Sweden and in 2017 he was an artist-in-residence at Miliki in Lagos. He has held recent exhibitions at Galleri Astley Uttersberg in Sweden and Alara in Lagos.

What makes an Alimi piece universal, now that the world is coming to Lagos for this fair? In your opinion and without modesty, what do you want them to take away from your work?

In creating art, consciously or not, I am attempting to communicate at a powerful, emotional level to those within my own culture and sometimes my work transcends its cultural matrix and speaks directly to our common humanity.

My work as an artist living in Africa has a deep dimension and I am grateful for that. African cultural aesthetics has a little of everything from Japanese to Scandinavia to South America because Africa is the cradle of civilization. Through this, my work has a global appeal.

My work at this year’s fair is the portrayal of the ‘new’ and modern life based on memories of ‘old’, experiments with different perceptions of fabric materials [Aso Oke] and sculptural wood carving that defies the norm.

What are your thoughts on the state of the Nigerian art industry and what does an art fair bring to it?

The industry is opening up like Nollywood. There is focus on African art and whenever there is anything regarding Africa, Nigeria is always on the list. Nigerian artists in diaspora are doing great thereby creating focus on us. The auction houses have done tremendous work by creating value for the art industry. New galleries are opening, there is a new hip culture emerging through art, big companies, private and public institutions