Nigerian-born, London-based multidisciplinary artist Tejumola Adenuga conjures an African utopia with components from its previous in a brand new exhibition, 'Future, Previous'. The opening of the exhibition came about at Artwork Twenty One, in Lagos, on Friday, April 19, 2024.
Consisting of portraits and minimalist design components, the exhibition is impressed by a mythology a few small river in its origins in Ijebu Ode and the characters who formed its existence and take into account it a supply of creativity and life. It evokes a spot that’s alive and vibrant with a revered divine entity inside Yoruba mythology. Among the subthemes embody a want for expression, the capabilities of the human thoughts and psyche – inner and exterior struggles – that necessitate the method of creativity.
Adenuga's visually intricate ink drawings, characterised by components of middle-class household life in Nigeria, solemn melancholic figures, curves and minimalist framing, current intimate and layered imaginative scenes, creating what the artist calls 'recollections, current actuality and future'. hopes from the angle of a kid who grew up on the river.
Reflecting on the inspiration behind the exhibition, Tejumola Adenuga mentioned: “As an artist, I’m usually curious concerning the dichotomy of what’s allowed to exist and what’s attainable – and how you can navigate the strain between remembering and daydreaming. I come from a household of blacksmiths and a few years in the past I left Nigeria, taking with me the load of chance, goals and creativity. These three elements have formed my identification, each as an artist and as an inhabitant of the world. Rising up, I used to be surrounded by creativity by way of the artisans who outlined my life – the shoemakers, the welders, the weavers, and this exhibition performs with the thought of a close-by communal river as a supply of creativity. I’m so glad to return to Nigeria – the place the place I took my inventive type and to discover what which means by way of this exhibition.”
From ink drawings to furnishings impressed by his blacksmithing heritage, Tejumola's exhibition injects mythology into the on a regular basis and elevates the characters with objective, technical element and minimalism, providing a spot in Africa the place something is feasible, which in some ways is a prayer is for each the artist and the viewer.
Caline Chagoury Moudaber, founding father of Artwork Twenty One, commented: “Tejumola's work evokes completely different meanings for various folks and its quiet, clever simplicity is without delay energy and triumph. It’s so necessary for us to rejoice Nigerian tradition and historical past, whilst we create different worlds the place everyone seems to be free to barter their capabilities, exterior of restrictive constructions designed in service of a single story of place. And that's what Tejumola does brilliantly, exploring the remaking of a time and place by way of the true and imagined, his private journey and shared, public expertise, inviting the viewer in complete to a spot with out limitations . “
The exhibition 'Future, Previous' can now be seen at Artwork Twenty One. gallery.
