Adeyemi, Egharevba Go Across Boundaries

DR. Kunle Adeyemi and Dr. Sukanthy Egharevba take their doctorate status in studio production to the mainstream art scene with a two-man art exhibition titled Knowledge Across Boundaries. It’s currently showing at Quintessence Gallery, Lekki, Lagos till June 28, 2015.

Adeyemi stated, “My creative art and thought as a researcher artist in recent years, particularly during my graduate programme at the Delta State University, witnessed freedom, innovativeness and experimentation as my visual perception and language begin to change philosophically. I choose to explore and communicate through some thematic works I called series.

I found out that I cannot exhaust my ideas in a single sentence or in a few words that give full meaning or do justice to my theme. I therefore look at such subjects from multiple angles because it is difficult and too limitless for me to translate the varied moods and connotations on a lone canvas, paper and board”.

Egharevba’s artist’s statement reads in part: “Many variables impact the output of my work as a researcher artist. These include culture, experiential background and sometimes inter-group influence. For many artists who have had to grow up or engage in other socio- economic activities in two or more disparate environments, the issue of synthesis comes glaringly to the fore. Sometimes this synthesis is given rise to by the similarities that exist in art forms and pictorial elements that exist in the diverse cultures. This is the case with the Tamil of Sri-Lanka and the Tiv of Nigeria.

A lot has been written on the history of art and culture of these two ethnic groups, but no studio art practice has hitherto addressed the issue of synthesis of art elements in the two art cultures. This is the concern of my works at this exhibition.”