A group of young Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora will showcase an artistic epic depicting prodigies of Africa in eclectic expressions. Titled, Infiltration Of The Blues, anchored by Sachi Hani-Okoroafor, the exhibition comes up September 17 to 30 at the Artists’ Foundation Gallery, Isiola Oyekan Close, Victoria Island, Lagos.NDUKA NWOSU presents a profile of the artists.

BOLD. Exciting. Unique. A genuine tour de force! Thirteen dynamic young artists truly living up to their genre; vibrant voices of the new generation. Infiltration Of The Blues, a collection of over 70 paintings and sculptures, is an artistic celebration of the entire cohort of the blue palette.

The theme is Blue; every shade of Blue. The artists vent their artistic license and infiltrate every hue of Blue. The result is an eclectic collection of great depth, breadth and diversity, which remains true to the culture, people and ambience of the Africa experience.

Akintola Hezekaiah crafts metal into intricate forms, as a way of ‘giving life to visions that reside within’. With every weld, he navigates the delicate balance between intent and interpretation; between strength and vulnerability. Driven by a desire to explore the possibilities of metal as an artistic medium, he crafts each piece with dedication and precision. His world of welded expressions is a realm where metal metamorphoses into art.

For Anayo Achike, each painting is a memorial of a happy past or a prophesy of a greater tomorrow. His creative instincts chant as the subconscious is awakened. From the thick clouds of vagueness, he says, fell the keys to the getaway car! To paint the poignant pictures of the personal past, while framing and fertilising the most freeing fantasies.

Even more, Chioma Okoli ‘sees beauty in everything’, and preaches change, acceptance and inclusion. She finds happiness in ‘creating something out of nothing’; and acknowledges the movement of time through the careful and colourful strokes of her brush. She believes that art has no limits; so creation continues. Being an artist often transcends the profession and becomes an obsession.

Esther Onwukamuche simply considers art as her ‘lifestyle’. She creates art with an open mind, being ‘willing to experiment’, while focusing on engaging with her audience through selective symbolism. Growing up, art was her key communication tool because she would often create, and answer questions about her paintings as a way of introducing herself through her artistic expression.

While Kola Adedeji is steeped in a traditional African style, he showcases vibrant colours interplaying abstract and figurative ideas. He attempts to convey experiences through architectural ideas and symbolic forms, shapes and patterns. Attention to detail is a significant element that explains his personal identity. This issue of identity is even more pungent for Ogochukwu Ejiofor, who pretty much uses art to ‘write her biography’ in colour and canvas, even if only metaphorically.

Through her art, she presents an extraordinary exploration of the three stages of life: childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Her technique is mixed media, embracing a lot of motifs found in the clothing and rough background of the artworks.

Oluwaseun Loje has a unique style that often blends recognisable elements with abstract forms, allowing an engagement with the subject on both a realistic and symbolic level. When contemplating her art, she often finds connections to specific moments, which trigger a sense of nostalgia. She desires that people viewing her work also recall experiences that have shaped their own lives.

Contrast this with Omonu Salisu whose recent works have been inspired by human heads, translated with motifs that represent famous proverbs and maxims. Omonu’s canvases are filled with hard lines and geometric shapes that express an engagement with a myriad of forms of identity.

Yet again, Paschal Okafor uses his paintings as experiential documentation of the land of his birth. His work confronts what he considers as a fading traditional heritage; and seeks to reignite the torches of honour and indigeneity.

Though his muse varies from painting to painting, Pedro Nwawunze consistently documents his personal experiences by composing scenes and events from real life. He believes, however that there is a repetitive attraction to figurative drawings especially where both the moment and its associated emotions are recorded. Paint is his medium of choice as it ‘mimics magic in its ability to capture unique perceptions’.

This uniqueness of perceptions is a theme shared with Sotonye Jumbo, who believes that each brushstroke immortalises a time and place in his reality. For him, there is an intriguing tug-of-war between ‘mindscape’ and ‘landscape’ that translates to blessings and barriers in equal measure. He invites his viewers to join him in a voyage of artistic discovery where every piece echoes with the whispers of questions asked, answers unearthed, and the silent conversation between creator and creation.

Similarly, Taiye Ajakaiye believes that art is omnipresent; the ultimate expression of reality, consisting of parts that can be comprehended with relative ease, while also breeding confusion and even delusion. He has developed a unique style of Art using natural materials to create a collage-esque, fractal style on canvas, concerned more with figurative realism. This, he feels, frees his mind from the ironies of life so the power of imagination allows free-flow and synergy.

According to the project curator, SACHI Hani-Okoroafor, the common thread that ties together this rich and diverse body of work, is the communal palette employed by all the artists. To him, the artworks are in the same range, so there is a degree of the ‘blur effect’ where each individual piece feels like it’s merging with everything else in the room. He finds it especially satisfying that the compositional and conceptual similarities of the artworks will give gallery visitors a sense of narrative and community as they navigate the exhibition.

The Infiltration project began about six months ago with a brief from the Curator, challenging the artists to explore the realms of ‘monochromatic constraints’ also referred to as ‘tonal segregation’, by attempting to work entirely from a range of tones within the Blue palette. The concept stemmed from SACHI’s personal journey with the colour Blue, which resulted in his creating the colour, SACHI Blue. The artists were free to use any muse they desired; and also address the multiple entendre of the words ‘blues’ and ‘infiltration’.

•Infiltration Of The Blues will open from September 17 to 30, 2023 at African Artists’ Foundation Gallery, Isiola Oyekan Close, Victoria Island, Lagos.