Alexis Galleries in Knock On Wood II

After a long absence from the exhibition circuit, art lovers and collectors will have a taste of new works, courtesy of Alexis Galleries, one of the country’s leading art galleries, from Saturday, September 12, 2020.

Alexis’ ‘exhibition ground’ will be open for a week, as its first virtual group exhibition interrogates wood, as well as canonise the Holy Grail by Chris Milk, in 2015, that virtual reality could someday become the ‘ultimate empathy machine’.

Coming on the heels of its first successful show in 2019, the virtual exhibition titled, Knock On wood II, features five artists — Afeez Adetunji, Chukwuemeka Michael, Olatunde Taiwo David, Darlington A. Chukwumezie and Osaro Luke — who will be showing humanity’s resilience in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has caused dramatic changes in the daily lives of people on the planet, as citizens are heeding the advice of their governments and engaging in appropriate physical distancing, all in an effort to reduce the spread of infection. People are confused, sad, anxious and helpless.

Last year, the dialogue on woods at Alexis Galleries on Akin Olugbade Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, held from September 14 to 26. This year, the dialogue is coming earlier — September 12 to 19.

With same theme and focus, but with a different medium of expression this year’s dialogue will be contemplated in a manner different from the past.

The show offers participating artists opportunity to express artistic styles and creative ingenuity with wood as the only medium.
The artists communicate their feelings and emotions through the same medium, a fusion of African art form, colour, motifs and patterns in a contemporary form.

The gallery notes in its forward to the show, “in an art world where wood as a medium can be ancient and contemporary medium, artists have diversified the style, technic, function and societal appreciation. The gallery bores the responsibility to encourage such transformation in art style and to birth contemporaries even in ancient mediums.”

The group show, which, according to the CEO/curator Patty Chidiac– Mastrogiannis, is in keeping with the physical distancing regulation of the Federal Government, features 25 works that “communicate human feelings and emotions through the wood, especially in this period of limited interaction.”

But there will be room for live viewing of the works by some interested few, which will be strictly by registration. The link to this effect will be published before the exhibition on the gallery’s social media handles — instagram- alexisgalleries. Facebook – Thehomestores Alexisgalleries — on August 26 (today).

Speaking on the theme, Bimpe Owoyemi, co-curator said that the exhibition is all about the wood. In time past “all we see about wood is the carving and other fetish things, but here the artists have not only defiled the common technic of carving, but had diversified the styles, technic, function, and societal appreciation or better put it the contemporary use of wood, as they have transformed, reformed, engraved motifs and even added colours on wood in special ways.”

Some of the works on show include, Swim in your own direction, You may kiss the bride, On your own, Mother Nature, The visitation and Concubine, Life on top of the water, Asiko and many others.

Pepsi, Tiger, Indomie, Mikano, The Guardian, Wazobia FM Radio, Cool FM, 7Ups, Cool World, Cobranet, Delta Airlines, The Home Stores, Art Café, and Lost In Lagos Magazine sponsor the exhibition.