Recently, some young artists came together in a show to examine the concept of blue.

Supported by UBA and African Artists’ Foundation, the show, which opened on September 17, ended September 30, 2023.

The group show, which held at 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.

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, interrogate the different shades of blue.

For the curator of Infiltration Of The Blues, Sachi Hani-Okoroafor and his colleagues, art can be redefined by providing thoughtful, provocative, emotionally resonant and memorably cinematic experience.

For the 12 artists, every shade of blue is self-reflective, introspective and experimental, while deepening the authentic African artistic expression.

Led by Hani-Okoroafor, who doubles as curator and artistic director of Prodigies of Africa, the artists look at 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.

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 moment that 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.”

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.

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.”