Emmanuel Eni, aka Blackman in European Kitchen, is a Nigerian poet, painter, sculptor and multi-media artist based in Germany. The creator and patent holder of New ‘Light Paintings’ Art, is the founder of Contemporary Baroque Art. He is also the developer of metric scale for art products as referred in his Death of the curator (2009) — a play, which reveals the intrigue and conspiracy in the art world while pointing out the dangers of curated art.

The ‘staccato temperament’ that Eni captures in his works reflects his impatience with the pain and suffering of man. So, a viewer must be patient to read between the lines to enjoy his poetry, see between the strokes of his paintings and sculptures.

As an artist, his work rejuvenates the soul of humans. It also shows the beauty in them. His work sharpens the intuition of humans and society to know what uplifts their consciousness. This is best exemplified in his well attended and successful shows in Fichtelgebirgshalle in 2019 and his second show in the region of Wunsiedel, Upper Frankonia, Bavaria, Germany; which testify to the fact that an artist has to be a neutral and transparent companion at a ratio of one artist to even millions of people.

“After showing the gains and philosophy of world civilisation in The Boom and Hope of Love exhibitions, the world has remained the same, not changing its mysteries or bending challenges,” he muses.

His new work, From Heaven to Hell, “is a display of a revolutionary pattern, developed to catch the feign nature of beauty and clarity – with an openness, the true vehicle that will carry our communication through to one another.”

This exhibition of sculptures and paintings is a travelling show, scheduled to hold in three cities in Nuremberg, Upper- Bavaria region of Germany.
On the philosophy behind the show, Eni says, “wanting heaven on an earth of threat and crisis continues to be a distraction from accepting the trend and facts of our present living. While scrambling for bare existential accolades, humanity is blinded by a syndrome of a simulation of material-glitters, packaged in the world system, a system and order of heinous political machinations, both internal and external.”

He adds, “this being said, the current global situation in the past six years, with its profound moving points of contact with humanity, spanning culture, politics, health, and the fragile positions of all issues in world civilisations, prompts me to create a revelation of intense beauty and a future projection through my art in this show; that can propel our society and the entire world at large towards beauty, purity and progress, as well as towards harmony, peace, existence, and coexistence.”

Eni continues, “through the interpretation of the artist’s own life, an allegory should be transposed in three known stages — physical, metaphysical and philosophical — and thrown like an exemplary mirror projection to his or her society.”

Listed as one of the most popular and most famous artists from Africa practicing in Germany, Eni keeps surprising and projecting greatly into the future. His current show, Heaven to Hell, talks about the global situation of the past six years.

“The artist role is to supply all the creative needs that help society replenish itself and help society know that another name it has is not only the known physical one, but the one that calls it ‘a collective order’, which is a uniting name that is intangible as well spiritual. Thus, the artist fills the society with beauty of being and spirit,” he says.

The 16 paintings and 10 sculptures centre on deeper aspects of love that resonate through the daily life of a person, society and life. The paintings are from the artist’s new light paintings.

Eni says: “My protean calling has created several seminal results such as, ‘Contemporary Barock Art’ under which all aspects of my creativity unite: Visual arts, installations, performance art, poetry and music. Also, the creation and patent of the well known ‘New light Paintings Art’, which, apart from not being lithography, or stained glass, is a style and material of rediscovered picturisation, whereby, the inner light of the painting itself surpasses the light of the paintings outside. In it, memory of the colour pigment and the canvas is obliterated, which makes the painting to have longevity like living forever.”

He says: “Doing so without breaking down its matter, over time, regardless of climate and light: This ‘New Light Paintings Art” reveals the ultimate brightness inside and outside of the picture. I also have described and illustrated the (BMSFAP) Basic Metric Scale For Art Products- in my published stage drama that deals with the dangers of curated art and the inner machinery of the art world.”

On what has been the challenge of creating his work in Germany, the artist has this to say: “Like everywhere, beauty is taken for free. Unlike the normal eyes that only forms feelings of what it sees, the artist lives in what he sees. One of the major problems of creating in Germany is that of acceptance, as many deterrents, ranging from different viewpoints and of different origins. Some especially come from the so called curators, who like rats blow, while biting great artists in clandestine.”

He also says, “the terrible weather of a nine month – winter, with up to minus 17 degrees, also makes it very hard to create, even for the hottest African. It takes the greater ambition within me to attract sustainable and substantial energy to be able to create here.”

However, to be up and doing in his creativity, he works with an inherent duty chronometer-like. “I work also in thoughts, motivated by my actions, which, therefore, make every place my studio. Knowing that I, like a farmer who must go out daily to work his fields, I must do the same, working my creation, lest my art, like the crops in the field, will be over grown by shrubs.”

How has your practice changed overtime? He says, “through the years, I’ve been moving towards solidifying my doctrines and logics in philosophy, while including preparatory drawings for the largest bronze sculpture compositions that I will create in the next few years.”