...At Alexis Galleries, a Travelling Exhibition Kicks off

TRIAD, a travelling exhibition which features three contemporary artists, has kicked off at the Alexis Galleries in Victoria Island, Lagos. Suraj Adekola, Monsur Awotunde and Olorunfemi Kinrin are lecturers at Kogi State Polytechnic and have their studio outside Lagos. They share common interests and decidedly put together this group show which highlights their individual techniques in painting.

Kinrin, on his part revealed during a preview of the works aspects of Nigerian soci0-political life that is captured in his body of works. Predominantly, he paints human skulls. He explained his reason for such an unusual subject.

“One of the problems with Nigeria is that we make decisions along ethnic lines. We should make our decisions objectively. When you look at the skull, you don’t see ethnicity or religion,’’ he pointed out. Some of Kinrin’s 13 paintings include “Ice Cream Mask” and “Negative Positive”.

Adekola, based in Ota, Ogun State has been practicing art professionally for ten years. His body of works titled “Purity Series’’ draws upon the notion that associates white colour with purity. Hence, some of his paintings have a white background to resonate that line of thought. As an artist, Adekola is also concerned about the relationship of man and his society. In this exhibition, he presents seven paintings including “Talking Eyes” and “Beautiful Face”.

“Home Affairs’’ is the title of Awotunde’s body of works. The UK-trained drawing and painting teacher is preoccupied with abstract painting using colours that had largely been influenced by his cultural experience in the United Kingdom. Another experience also came in handy for Awotunde as he worked on the piece titled, “Fancy Peninsula”.

“One day, I was with my friend at a waterfront and he was wishing to buy a large piece of land and build a house where only he would live. Later, he changed his mind about living alone in a peninsula,’’ he recounted.

He sees the episode in a larger picture: if only the ruling class can create wealth for all citizens and not just themselves. The peninsula is thus a visual metaphor for national wealth.

This exhibition which runs till June 3 is sponsored by Pepsi, Cool FM Family, Chocolate Royal, The Avenue Suites, Art Café, Amarula, Neberburg, Cobranet, Avenue Suites, Delta Airline and The Homestores Limited.