Aina, Tete-Katchan bring Cubes and Colours to Lagos
As colour and form have proven their resilience in creativity, across generations and regions, Felix Aina and Samuel Tete-Katchan find a common space to celebrate that essence of art creation. Each artist uses space to provide his own signature and identity on the Lagos art scene.
From cubic rendition by Tete-Katchan and texturised colour by Aina, comes Cubes and Colours, the joint show, which opens on November 14, will be on till 21, 2020 at Alexis Galleries, Victoria Island, Lagos. Despite the sharp differences in their kind of art, the two artists, however, have something in common: They are gradually etching their image in the Lagos art hub. While the cubist Tete-Katchan is Accra, Ghana-based, the colourist Aina is pushing his art in the city after relocating from Abuja where he had practiced for a long time.
Apart from his cubism style, which comes with linear form, Tete-Katchan also has figural works that are approached in pseudo-pop art of simplified painting. Also radiating simplified aura is the artist’s creation of space perception in which he drops the figurative paintings and other imageries.
Among the artist’s works for Cubes and Colours is the piece, Breakfast, in which three figures, seated at a table exude some attributes of a masterpiece. One of the strongest contents of Breakfast is the high headroom of the composition as it creates an illusion of space over the seated figures.
Aside creating figures with simplified lines, Tete-Katchan, in the same painting, brings natural light from the door entrance into confluence with the electric illumination hanging from the top of the subjects.
Whatever anyone needs in colours that articulate concept, Aina’s palette appears to possess. For the artist, colours are used to generate form, from which his art derives energy to communicate.
Aina, for example, hovers his energy of colours over the rooftops of sheds in the ancient city of Ibadan to create Ibadan Market, in which blue dominates. Asserting his strength in colours as language, Aina pierces the sea of blue rooftops with the lineage of orange colours. “Blue indicates signs of the time and orange says much about hope,” Aina explained at the media preview of the show held at Alexis Galleries.
A graduate of The Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, Aina said the show’s theme means much to him from colours’ perspective.
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In creating something different from the crowd of colourists, Aina texturises his canvas with non-conventional materials. “I use chaffs removed from rice to texturise my canvas.”
Tete-Katchan, a Togolese, is not unfamiliar to the Lagos art scene, said co-curator, Bimpe Owoyemi, who described Tete-Katchan’s work as “known for geometric” style. He has shown at Alexis several times, in group and joint exhibitions. For example, in 2018 he had a joint with Oluwole Omofemi in the show titled, Fair and Square.
The exhibition is supported by Pepsi, Tiger, Indomie, Mikano, Haier Thermocool, The Guardian, Cool World Cobranet, UPs, Aina Blankson Attorneys, Cool FM, Wazobia TV, Lost In Lagos Magazine, Delta Airlines, The Homestores and Art Café. Parts of the proceeds from the exhibition would be donated to Sickle Cell Foundation of Nigeria.
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