In the project, which tasks their creative ingenuity beyond mere application of brush on canvas, the artists, Chioma Okoli, Akintola Hezekiah, Anayo Achike, Esther Onwukamuche, Kola Adedeji, Ogochukwu Ejiofor, Oluwaseun Loje, Omonu Salisu, Pedro Nwawunze, Sotonye Jumbo, and Taiye Ajakaiye deconstruct the concept of blue.
Led by Hani-Okoroafor, who doubles as an exhibiting artist, curator and artistic director of Prodigies of Africa, the artists interrogate the issue of space vis-a-vis access to a global audience and opening a viable route back ‘home’ for them to work, and build a deeper connection with their native lands and cultures.
For the 12 prodigies every stretch of blue from the biographical and self-reflective to the introspective and experimental, the artists also showcased every mode and medium of authentic African artistic expression.
Hani-Okoroafor, professionally known as Sachi, is a UK-bases Nigerian artist, who doubles as the curator, said the group show holding at the African Artists’ Foundation Gallery in Victoria Island, is an artistic celebration of the entire cohort of the blue palette; inspired by the colour – Sachi Blue.
He said, “the theme is blue; every shade of blue. The artists vent their artistic licence, literarily, thereby, infiltrating and overwhelming every hue of blue, but remaining true to the culture, people and ambience of the African experience.”
Saying it was his first show, he added, “the idea was birthed a year ago. I created my colour, called Sachi Blue, using my birthday and that sparked an obsession with the colour blue. I’ve been doing paintings only in colour blue and I thought to myself- l should expand this. So, I did a brief about colour blue, distributed the brief and gave target for artists to work with.
“It is a pure and completely abstract self-portrait, absent of likeness or figure but still presenting identification,” he said.
According to him, “over 30 artists came and we gave them an opportunity to write 10 compositional scripts for their paintings— that is what they like their paintings to be based on. I went through the lists and looked at the ones that looked and good we brought the art works here.”
He said: “I realised at that momentthat the colour blue was not only an obsession, but also something I felt a deeper connection to, struggling to avoid it on the rare occasion that I tried to.
“I began to do a lot of work that included the colour; writing poetry from the perspective of blue objects around my studio, taking more photos where blue was the main colour in the scene, even trying to learn how to play blue notes.”
His ability to create a signature colour and art, is what the participating artists are replicating at the ongoing exhibition. Sotonye Jumbo, one of the artists, noted that the exhibition has encouraged cross pollination of ideas among the participating artists, Oluwaseun Loje has learnt some techniques, amid other artists sharpening their craft.
On his part, President, Society for Art Collection, Okey Anueyiagu, noted efforts of the artists represent multiple shifting realities of contemporary African art, forming and pointing to the major parts of the future of African art.
To him, they have provided art forms and styles that will for a long time be reviled and loved by art lovers all over the world.
Speaking further, he added the exhibition is playing a heroic role in the establishment of the nexus “between our past, and pointing us to the future of our art’s endeavours, by providing a discerning and practical guide to understanding where we have been and where we are headed based on the lessons from our past.”
Supported by UBA and African Artists’ Foundation, the show, which opened on September 17, ends September 30, 2023.
