Indigenous visual artists to watch in 2019
With the many exhibitions, exchanges, residences and fairs, the Nigerian art scene achieved some feats in 2018 despite challenges. However, the feats were possible largely due to the activities initiated or involving a good number of acclaimed visual artists locally and internationally. Some of the artists who ruled last year are also set to make huge impact this year with breathtaking works, exhibitions and other exciting activities.
Top among them are:
Chukwuma is a celebrated visual artist with an enthusiastic local and international following. He is among artists to watch this year.
You need to see the University of Nigeria Nsukka Art School trained artist unleash his bold works made from multitude of found objects and representation of an unforgettable visual language, in which he uses African symbols and patterns in refreshing new ways.
He has numerous creative works to his credit. One of them is The Nerve Centre; one of the 19 monuments commissioned by Lagos Sate government to mark Lagos at 50 celebration. The enormous installation brought from conception to life by Chukwuma is built to last for decades. Truly, it seems that Lagos slept one night and woke up to this new landmark.
Top among the reasons to see Chukwuma’s works is that fact that the artist who has participated in more than 20 exhibitions in the last decade in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, France, Denmark, Holland, and the United States is promising more exhibitions, collaborations and engagements this year.
On your visit to his exhibitions this year, you will discover why his works (combination of textures, lines, symbols and colours laid out on painstakingly etched wooden panels) have become auction favourites.
If you want to appreciate the female folks who are in the creative industry, Peju Alatise should be among the top 10. Alatise, a sculptor, exhibits rare creative ingenuity in her works. She was among the three artists that represented Nigeria at Venice Art Biennale in Italy in 2017. You need to see her works because Alatise has gone beyond mere sculpture to exerting some level of socio-cultural influence with her work and even personality.
You need to meet her this year because of her multiple talents. She is a sculptor, mixed- medium artist, a poet and published writer whose interdisciplinary work has garnered attention on the global art stage. She was selected as the 2016 fellow at the Smithsonian Institute of African Art and was 2017 recipient of the highly coveted FNB Art Prize, a prize that made her join the ranks of previous winners such as Nolan Oswald Dennis, Turiya Magadlela, Portia Zvavahera and Kudzanai Chiurai.
As the 2019 elections draw near, she is reengaging her passion about addressing social, political and gender-related issues as her primary subject matter, through artistic works that also capture the joy and pain of womanhood in modern- life- African traditions.
This year, she is offering her works in private and institutional collections around the world more than ever before.
If you visit the Legend Hotel by Curio Collection at Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, great artworks courtesy of the Edo State-born painter welcome you into an awaiting leisure.
To say the least, Ehikhamenor is globally renowned. He led the team of three contemporary artists that represented Nigeria at Venice Art Biennale in Italy in 2017, Nigeria’s debut at the 122year old biennale. Emboldened with the exposure and networking at the biennale, the artist is set for more creative works now and in the future.
So, follow the artist this year to see sheer creativity, especially breathtaking installations.
Born in 1993 in Italy, Queen is reputed for her unabashed expressions in which rich texture of colours give vent to her subject, often times in a manner that escapes conventional exactitude.
As a portraitist, she draws her themes from the mood of her subjects (women and children) as she situates them in discourses; also allowing for spatial escape (as opposed to closed finish) this opens up extensive suggestions about her artistic concerns.
She has participated in several group themed exhibitions, her most recent participation at the International art fair, Art X Lagos. She is also represented in North America, by Cuverley LLC, an art management firm based in Atlanta, USA.
Her works are in several private collections in the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Republic of Benin and Nigeria.
Butler is a self-taught artist with over 30 years of studio practice. His works have been exhibited internationally including in Canada, England, France and the United States. He studied medicine and has worked at the cutting edge of auto mechanics, information technology, and furniture design. His impressive painting technique and deeply philosophical approach to life is evident in his surrealist style and subject matter.
You need to see Butler’s works because they show the breadth of his signature surrealist style, celebrating relationships on the personal, family and community level. Butler speaks to the soul and identity of African communities as they draw on ancestral roots within futuristic mindscapes which reference cultural identity and traditions vis-à-vis the need to preserve and conserve the natural world.
This year, he invites his viewers to stop and look below the surface at issues his works throw up, which he references through arid worlds revealing intertwined forms and rich textures which speak volumes once they are recognized in the shadows.
Of course, there are many other artists who are set to boost the creative offerings in the Nigerian art landscape this year. Visit museums, exhibitions, auctions and fairs to meet them, see their works and also buy some as artworks now stand for bank collateral.