Sunday 25 September 2016

Sammy Olagbaju...When He Was Here

It was Grillo Pavilion Art Fiesta, 2013 edition, in Ikorodu, Lagos, which had Kolade Oshinowo as the celebrant. Again, Sammy Olagbaju was among the art patrons that extended their love for art to those who create the works. He joined others in celebrating Oshinowo.
 Late art patron. Mr Sammy Olagbaju (seated in the middle); playwright, J.P. Clark (left); the celebrant, Kolade Oshinowo; (standing) Chief Mrs Funmilayo Shyllon, Mrs Gbadamosi, Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya and Prince Yemisi Shyllon shortly after the 2013 Grillo Pavilion Lecture Series.

Olagbaju was said to have died on September 23, 2016, aged 75. He was a passionate art collector across nationalities, and supporter of young artists.

Saturday 24 September 2016

Destroyers of Ilojo Bar will face ‘criminal’ charges, FG aasures


During his visit to the demolition site of a 190-year-old national monument, the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Mallam Yusuf Abdallah Usman, assured that the developer who allegedly destroyed the edifice will be prosecuted.

 
D-G, Mallam Yusuf Abdallah Usman (middle) during a visit  to the site of demolished Iljo Bar at Tinubu Square, Lagos Island.

Texts of Usman’s speech:

 It has come to the notice of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments that the highly valued Ilojo Bar national monument has been willfully demolished by an unpatriotic developer on the eve of Eld-el-kabir holiday, September 11, 2016.
   
Ilojo Bar (formerly known as Casa De Fernendez or Angel House) was built approximately 190 years ago and in all these years stood as the best example of Brizillian style of architecture introduced by Africans who regained their freedom from their “Portuguese masters” in Brazil. Its historical, social and architectural values have been well acclaimed, thus prompting the Federal government of Nigeria to provide special protection status as a National Monument through Gazette 25 Vol. 43 of 5th April, 1956. Since then the NCMM has been maintaining, promoting and preserving the monument in collaboration with members of Olaiya family, Lagos state government and other interested stake holders both local and international.

   
The threats to this historic building has been unfolding for quiet sometime due to rising commercial interest in view of its strategic location. In October 2015, a member of the family wrote to the Commission informing that one of them is trying to engage a private developer to demolish the monument and clear the place for commercial development. In response to this, a meeting was called with the family members led by Daniel Adewale Olaiya on the 19th January 2016. The meeting discussed all the issues around the monument, including its legal status, how the structure is put to use and the grievances of the family members. It was finally agreed that the statuesquo of the monument should remain while they submit their complains through appropriate official channel but nothing was heard from them since then.

  
The recent threat to demolish the monument came on 2nd July 2016 when a developer in collusion with some members of the family mobilized a bulldozer and some armed men with the intent to demolish the structure. The National Commission for Museums and Monuments got information about the move and quickly mobilized the Lagos museum staff and in collaboration with Lagos state government officials accosted the group and frustrated the attempt. In the meantime the attention of law enforcement agencies was drawn.

  
 On Saturday July 2016 the developer again mobilized to demolish the building an action which was again rebuffed this time through the intervention of  Honourable Agboola Dabiri special adviser to the Lagos state governor on the Lagos Central Business District. Following his intervention a stakeholders meeting was summoned at Lagos State secretariat Alausa Ikeja where Honourable Dabiri undertook to do everything possible to avert the demolition of the monument.



Subsequently Tuesday August 16th 2016 a stakeholders meeting was convened by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments at National Museum Lagos involving major stake holders including members of the Olaiya family, management staff of National museum Lagos, representative of Lagos State Ministry of Tourism and the representatives the Brazillian Consulate, Benedita Gouveia Simonetti and Adeniran Arimoro. During the meeting, the stake holders agreed that all necessary steps must be taken to safeguard the monument from any threat including involving law enforcement agencies and placement of notice on the site notifying the public about the status of the building. The meeting also agreed to revive an earlier plan to organize a gala night to raise funds for the restoration of the monument.    

  
 To our greatest surprise however, on Saturday 27 August 2016 the same developer again mobilized his bulldozer and actually damaged the portion of the building. A petition was written and submitted to the Area Commander of the Nigerian Police (Lion building) requesting for the arrest and prosecution of the culprits but apparently the police did not find the matter serious enough to detain or prosecute them. Seeing the levity with which the Area Command handled the matter, another petition was written on 29th August, 2016 to the AIG zone 2 Onikan. Meanwhile on Thursday 1st September 2016, Honourable Dabiri was again approached and he gave an official letter to the Special adviser to the governor on Urban Development requesting the ministry to withdraw a letter of permit for demolition said to be given to the developer. Another letter was written to the Governor intimating His Excellency about the status of the monument and seeking his assistance to safeguard it.

   
However, despite all the efforts of highly responsible and patriotic individuals and government agencies, the developer on the eve of Eid-el kabir September 11th 2016 sneaked in his instrument of destruction and in one fell swoop and in the full glare of some bewildered members of the public willfully demolished the Ilojo Bar an outstanding historic and architectural monument that has adored the cultural landscape of Lagos Island for nearly two centuries.

  
Ilojo Bar, Tinubu Square, Lagos Island,  before its demolition


 This sad event is a critical turning point in the history of heritage management in Nigeria. The open and shocking way the action was carried out without any shame and embarrassment is a source of serious concern for the National Commission for Museums and Monuments as heritage managers and for all responsible Nigerians who love history and culture. The action is not only criminal but it has robbed us of an important heritage resource that helps defines us as a people and assist our understanding of our past and our projection of the future.

   
The demolition has destroyed a masterpiece of the only surviving Brazilian houses in Lagos with its attractive arches and fine iron works as statue described as being “Gothic in style and balustrade reminiscent of a Venetian palace”.  It has done great injustice to the credit of African craftsmanship in architecture which has exerted great influence on Yoruba architecture that is today visible in all parts of Yoruba land.


 Indeed the demolition has eliminated the tangible evidence of social and cultural impact of the transatlantic slave trade and it abolition. It has wiped away an outstanding source of memory and history of freed slaves and their roles and impact in the evolution and development of cosmopolitan urban Lagos. At the same time it has destroyed one of the outstanding symbolic evidence of cultural ties between Nigeria and Black diaspora in general and Brazil in particular.

   
This dastardly act has distorted the eminent position of Lagos in colonial history as centre where returnee slaves from Brazil built houses in similar manner of the new architectural fashion when Lagos was created as a colony thus impoverishing Lagos of its rich architectural urban history and undermining its acclaimed status as centre of excellence.


 However, the NCMM will not rest on its oars until the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to book. In line with the powers and responsibilities conferred on it by NCMM Act, Cap N19, Laws of the federal republic of Nigeria 2004, the NCMM ensure that criminal action is brought on the culprits as well as demand full compensation for the demolished monument. It will be reconstructed and fully restored according to professional restoration standards. We wish to assure all Nigerians that the Ilojo Bar will be restored as it is a fully documented National Monument with an up-to-date and comprehensive documentation of its architectural history and design details.   Consequently, NCMM is poised to restore Ilojo Bar back to its original authentic form.  

  
In the meantime, the site of the monument being an integral heritage space is being explored for a postmortem archaeological reconnaissance survey while heritage impact assessment of the demolition will be conducted.
  
 We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to join the National Commission for Museums and Monument in saving, protecting and maintaining our national heritage resources.




Wednesday 21 September 2016

Lagos@50 drives protest against Ilojo Bar demolition


Lagosians, especially the Afro-Brazilans, Lagos@50 invites all to a sensitization encounter at Speaker Corner, Freedom Park, Broad Street Lagos..
 "The message on the celebration logo exhorts us to enhance enhance  (not denounce) the Heritage..
In spite of on-going Initiatives, to preserve and enhance the -in this case, Afro Brazilian
 "Heritage that narrates History, not merely of Lagos but of the African Diaspora in monuments - the Olaiya Building in Tinubu Square was clandestinely bulldozed in some commercial development interest during the recent extended Muslim holiday.
 "This has been an on-going struggle, especially since National Independence. In order to preempt a repeat under the ever-hovering bulldozers, please let us gather at the Speakers corner on October 22, 2016 at Freedom Park, to discuss strategies against a repeat of this midnight assault on a common Patrimony.
 "What we find especially galling and embarrassing is that this accelerated demolition took place at the very time when at least two foreign governments had committed in assisting with the preservation of the Brazilian structures in Lagos and had begun its work closely with Nigerian preservationists.
  "The format will be an Open House exchange with the hopeful consensus of an appeal, not  only to the government of Lagos but to the Federal government to adopt and effect a uniform policy for the Preservation of all national heritage sites and buildings even in the frenzy of development."

Tuesday 20 September 2016

A 'Legacy' For 2016 African Film Festival in Lagos


In its fourth edition, Lights, Camera, Africa!!! Film Festival, which runs from September 26 to October 1 at Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria shows shorts films from different parts of the world.

Legends of Madagascar by Haminiaina Ratovoarivony

 Madagascar/2012/93 min/Malagasy
Themed 'Legacy', the 2016 edition of LCA Film Fest shows among other films ‘Beleh’ (2013) where a man gets to step into his wife's shoes by experiencing pregnancy himself; ‘Boneshaker’ (2012), starring 11-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis; ‘Ududeagu’ (2014), starring artiste, Ade Bantu; and Joy, It's Nina (2012) weaves together stories of African women living in the UK based on real-life archives, including voicemails from legendary singer Nina Simone. 

  The organisers state: “Our selection will also take you traveling in space and time with Legends of Madagascar (2012), which explores the taboos and beliefs of the insulated country, Kwaku Ananse (2013) built on a fable of the Ashanti people and Onunaekwuluora: The Legacy Of Professor Thurstan Shaw (2014), which documents Shaw's revelation of the rich ancient heritage of the Igbos,  his stubborn insistence on retention of the artefacts dating as far back as 9 AD in Nigeria, as a sacred trust for the Igbo-Ukwu and Nri people.

   “The Supreme Price (2014), a highly acclaimed documentary film that traces the Pro-Democracy Movement in Nigeria and efforts to increase the participation of women in leadership roles will encourage our audience to reconsider our past with new eyes.

  “Many of our films offer social commentary. They include Chika Anadu's B for Boy (2013) that chronicles a woman's desire for a son in a culture that values boys over girls and Sexy Money (2014) about former sex workers who return to Nigeria to build new lives for themselves, with original music by the celebrated singer and activist, Nneka. 
  “We also have films pushing the envelope like Oya, the Rise of the Orisha (2014), Africa's first superhero movie named for the Yoruba warrior goddess and Aya of Yop City (2013), based on the hit comic book series set in the popular Abidjan neighborhood. Coz Ov Moni 2, a musical in pidgin English filmed in Ghana and Romania, is another film to look out for.


Our festival, which features dozens of other great films, will close with October 1 (2014), Kunle Afolayan's latest opus set at a time when the country was optimistic about the possibilities of Nigeria once Nigerians got to chart their own path forward.”

Sunday 18 September 2016

Fresh breath of clay from 'Yaba' ceramists


Ceramic art is not exactly common on Lagos art space for the simple reason that its appreciation is more functional and utilitarian than aesthetics, compared to other non-applied art sub-genres.
   
Ewa (Beauty) by Ikeya Joseph
 But at Yusuf Grillo Gallery, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, over 11 artists just refreshed the art landscape with Untapped Treasures by reminding followers of art that the soil, from which most creatures evolved remains a crucial part of creativity. In fact, the artists merged intellectual contents with functionality of the ceramic objects.


Widely rendered in aesthetics - even few that combine functionality - the works, despite being presented in poorly lit gallery environment, showed the resilience of pottery as one of the oldest form of art.


The lesson of the exhibition was to stress the importance of ceramic as a viable venture, even within the academic environment, Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Kokoeka Soyinka told guests during a visit to the show.

  In one of the works on display, Transmutation, by Temitope Falayi, the value place on art in proper connection between man and its environment was stressed. In fact, the artist argued that "human life is incomplete without art." Also Unity was of interest among his works, particularly in a country that is facing one of its most challenging ethno-religious period against the backdrop of politics.

   
Still on the connection between man and the environment, Benjamin Amano took the subject into the spiritual realm in the work he titled From the Rubbles. In its natural clay texture without glazing, the piece, according to Amano explains the spiritual ties between the much dreaded disaster such as earthquake, which is a thoughtful link to man's origin from clay. On his non-glazing approach, he insisted that it makes the work retain its natural texture.

   
Another pottery of the artist titled Royalty, which was embellished with images of traditional chiefs stresses his skill in ceramic art.

 Also on display were Ewa (Beauty), by Ikeya Joseph; One Of A Kind and Bond by Pat Anthony Euba; From Void To Form by Adeleke Ogunleye; Drinking Water Set from Olowolabayaki Bolarinwa, Bonga Fish by Carol Igbinadolor and Out from the same mould by Soyinka.

  
Also on display were works of select students, an idea, which Soyinka explained as collective responsibility of "promoting our values, not a competition." She noted how ceramic art is currently moving beyond what it used to be many years back. And providing the students opportunity to exhibit in the same space with art teachers, she argued, "is part of the process of preparing them for the challenges ahead."

  
With Untapped Treasures, it appears like the SADP at Yabatech has strengthened its culture of showing works of students when art teachers exhibit. Quite a number of students, in the past have shown with teachers at the Yusuf Grillo Gallery.

Sunday 11 September 2016

Teachers Show ‘…Challenge of National Development’

AS group art exhibition titled Visual arts, Communication and Creativity, featuring works of teachers is currently showing till Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at School of Art, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.

A triptych, Olori (Head) by Ayoola Sodade

Ayoola Sodade, Abdulrasheed Afolabi, Hakeem Adeyemo, Olubunmi Adetayo, Emma Idiong, Tajudeen Adeyoola, Taiwo Akinwande and Taiwo Sorunke are artists and designers on the exhibition list.

    
Excerpts from curatorial notes: Research and development is the lubricant that oils the wheels of visual art education and training. With continuous research and development, visual arts educators are imbued with innovative ideas to stay ahead of the learning curve. According to Tina Illoekwe of the Department Fine and Applied Arts, Federal College of Education, Okene, the quality of visual arts educator has a large bearing on students’ interests in studying the subject. 

A 2005 report by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, entitled “A Portrait of the Visual Arts: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era” examines the visual arts in the context of the broader arts environment, especially, the challenges of visual art practice in a digital age. According to the report, the visual art is a “system that responds to internal and external forces in the broader society and thus reflects such trends as growing pluralism in the artistic styles, the new technologies, and changing public expectations about the role of the visual arts in society”. 

Expectedly, given the above dynamics, the onus falls on visual art educators to continually be at the top of their practice. They must continue to research, experiment and bring the products of their experiences to the public through conferences, workshops, exhibitions and community development projects. This will improve their knowledge and skills so that they can teach students better - students who will conquer the world as innovative creators.

A Nation's Changing Times On Canvas Of Oshinowo

By Tajudeen Sowole
WHEN strange events occur, artists' accounts via visual interpretation always serve as medium of resources, including anthropological and other evidences from which historians and researchers either derives content to support their findings or get leads to unravel facts. For artist, Kolade Oshinowo, the future would have been denied great artistic impression of odd, but real life events that happened in Nigeria, in the last one decade.
   
They Come From Makoko II, Collage-Acrylic, 27 x 38 (2014)
 To stress his passion in the area of representational form, particularly when it comes to documenting events, Oshinowo sacrifices his growing interest in fabric-collage on canvas for what he considers, one of the most crucial periods in Nigeria's nationhood challenges. The body of work generated from his observatory canvas, which he titles Changing Times, is heading for a one-week solo exhibition from September 17, 2016 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.
  Recall that in 2012, Oshinowo, perhaps, for the first time, showed works that were mostly populated with canvas of collage fabrics in his solo show titled Silhouette at Nike Gallery, Lekki, Lagos. Synonymous with figural and fashion themes, the fabric collage appeared inappropriate for the artist's choice of thematic focus three years after. With so many odd things happening in Nigeria, some of which "could melt even stone of heart,"  it was important "to change my theme," Oshinowo says to select preview guests at Terra Kulture.
   From the activities of the terror group, Boko Haram, to the unprecedented feverish build-up towards general elections of 2015 as well as resurgence of Niger Delta militants and brazenness of kidnappers, Oshinowo's canvas takes a visual narrative of Nigeria's challenges within the context of a country being violated from all fronts. "All these," he discloses, "distracted me from the fashion themes in fabric collage."
  While visualisation of Sambisa forest - a vast land mass that spreads across five states - which hosts the world's most-priced captives could be imagined in diverse picturisation by as many as millions of people who have expressed empathy, but a simple, perhaps, common kind as depicted by Oshinowo still sends a chill through one 's vein.  Titled Cries From Sambisa, in acrylic and oil, the high headroom composition above the cluster of girls placed almost at the bottom of the canvas generates a strong effect of deep isolation. Adding to the isolation-effect is a deep green of huge trees. But the scene is not without a hope: rays of light from the distance slightly beams onto the spot where the girls are held.
  Still on the tragic effect of the Boko Haram oddity, Oshinowo's brushing travels through the plight of IDPs. Such works include Internally Displaced People II, a mixed of victims across age groups and Internally Displaced Children, a three figure portrait of children. The children portrait perhaps represents the fact that the IDPs are also outside the northeast, even coming down south to as far as Lagos.
  For an artist who cherishes basic of art such as drawing, the works are not without few of such. Among the drawings, monochrome in coffee colour, is a spiritual solution to the Chibok girls crisis. Titled Prayer For Chibok Girls, the work that depicts a girl in praying action also stresses the beauty of good draughtsmanship in artistic expression.

Cries From Sambisa, Acrylic-oil, 102 x 92 (2016)

  Despite Nigeria's challenges, the country, according to Oshinowo's observation, has been held together by “divine interventions.” This much he explains in an acrylic piece Divine Encounter, citing for example, the 2015 general elections as a product of divinity. But the artist recalls that, consciously, "I started painting divine intervention series since 1980s," when he perhaps began to notice a gradual sliding of his country down the ladder of failure. Over two decades after, and with the coming of Boko Haram, kidnapping, resurgence of militancy in Niger Delta, all piercing through the fabric of Nigeria's nationhood, Oshinowo asks: "is this Nigeria?"
  However, as the central theme of the body of work turns out a good distraction in favour of visual documentation of the subsisting oddity of a nation, the importance of "socialising" still creeps into the tragic parts of the narratives. The artist brings few pieces from his fabric collage in works such as Weddin Day, At The Festival, Aso Ebi, Celebrity, among others.     
  If there is any artist who has remained defiant against critique of ‘repetitive’ themes, Oshinowo is that thorn in the flesh of such critics. One recalls that all of a sudden, promoters of ‘contemporaneity,’ few years ago, started bashing a section of Nigerian artists for ‘still’ painting common themes such as, market scenes, streetscapes and other daily environmental depictions. But defiant and vintage Oshinowo – in Changing Times - is boldly expressed in crowded market scenes such as Return to Oyingbo, Omo Oloja, The Arena and The Assembly, among others.
 Indeed, it takes a keen observatory perspective into common activities and sceneries in an ever theatrical Lagos environment to generate great artistic composition and contents.  Again, Oshinowo proves that incendiary of  ‘repetitive’ themes can hardly be exhausted as he captures eleja (fish sellers) in a very uncommon scenery. From Youth Wing, Neighbourhood Fish Hawkers, to They Come From Makoko series, Oshinowo’s brushing exhales freshness into Lagos streetscape on canvas. In fact, the artist’s capture of women fish hawkers in They Come From Makoko series is more interesting in the drove movement of the women.
  Oshinowo's studio is a neigbhour to Makoko, the famous riverine community in Lagos. Constantly, he notices how the women move in convoy, "and always at a particular period of the day."
  In 2012 when Oshinowo showed the fabric textured paintings as a Silhoutte, he named the technique as recover and reuse (R&R). Four years after, he continues with the collage in quite a number of pieces that adds relief to the constant sad stories coming from north east of Nigeria and Niger Delta.   
  In his artist statement, Oshinowo describes his journey through the art as an investment of great deal of energy and passion, especially focusing  "streams of responses to various stimuli within our socio/economic, political, cultural and environmental space."  Oshinowo who boasts of many "decades of uninterrupted studio practice, searching, researching, exploring and discovering" notes that with such a consistent journey, only he can "outdo myself."
 Excerpts from his artist statement: “I try to subject reality to a preferential process of selection and choosing only what is in concert or harmony with my own disposition. I allow my paintings to talk to me in a meditative engagement process in the course of my work. This dialogue has enabled me to give life to a large body of work.
  
Kolade Oshinowo
 "The deep sincerity of overpowering passion I have for my studio practice has always made me to be professionally protective and unflappable with the rights I have over my work. This has often times been misconstrued as professional arrogance.
  "These are indeed troubling times. My current output includes works that attempts to reflect our dark side and the consequences of several wrong choices we have made as a nation. Negative reports have invariably overshadowed what we always assumed to be our 'normal' life. Our state of wickedness and penchant for 'man's inhumanity to man' has continued to assault our collective psyche robbing us of our genuine desire for progress."

Saturday 10 September 2016

New edition of ‘Adire Cloth In Nigeria’


Newly published, with more detailed edition, a new edition of ‘Adire Cloth in Nigeria’ is currently available. The first edition was published by the Institute of African studies, University of Ibadan in 1971. 
 
Book Cover
According to the promoters of the book, Adire making is a very long standing textile tradition in Nigeria; it is not just an extraordinarily specialised craft, but also an art form requiring great expertise. “This new and exciting publication contains in-depth and detailed descriptions of the very wide variety of adire design techniques and the dyeing methods, along with fascinating background history on the subject,” the promoters stated. “There are chapters by a variety of scholars, including five written by the original five authors. The new chapters reflect the current situation and new developments with adire making. Numerous drawings and photographs illustrate the publication, including pictures of rare pieces of adire cloth held in private collections and museums.”

Key resource contributors involved in this new publication include the editors, Doig Simmonds, Pat Oyelola, and Segun Oke.  Professor Dele Layiwola, the Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan writes the Foreword, while renowned artist and designer, Chief Nike Okundaye, contributed a new chapter. Nike as she is fondly called has done so much to create a revival in adire making.
 Adire Cloth in Nigeria will be very useful for academics and researchers, a valuable resource book for educational establishments, and can contribute to raising knowledge and awareness about arts and crafts and textile design in Nigeria.
   
The book is available at Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. Contact: doigds@gmail.com 

Sunday 4 September 2016

Early Search... Arueyingho Revisits Resilient Art Process

By Tajudeen Sowole
 CONTEMPORARY process of creating art, such as digital and other postmodern methods, could not have surfaced without the traditional steps as part of natural progression, so suggests Geoffrey Aje Arueyingho's broadened scope, which covers medium and genres across visual arts. From art to craft and through the terrain of design, Arueyingho collapses the boundaries and barriers, and brings creativity into a single space.
 
Paper print, My Life (1983) by Geoffrey Aje Arueyingho

 Presented as a solo exhibition titled Early Search at The Art Gallery, Fine and Applied Arts Department, Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Arueyingho's works included portraits on wood cut, gouache, corals, deep etching, graphite, metal in relief, photography, lino-print, graphite and textile design. Though an exhibition, the body of work, interestingly, also serves as a medium of documentation, revisiting how most art and design genres or medium of today evolved in pre-digital periods.

  From a 1983 figural An Old Beggar, Don't Let Us Weep (1984) to Back Home (1990), as well as Fulani Girl (1989) and Hausa Baby Drummer (1990), Arueyingho digs into old collection to excavate the resilient application of yarn on board, deep etching, acid etching and gouache among other medium. More interesting, the artist, back then, seemed to have found graphite a flexible medium in rendering figural forms. For examples, Self Portrait (1984) and Ben (1985) are quite some lessons in how to take portraiture into non-regular texture, yet achieve facial as well as other features in details.

  In a group of works he calls Colour Photographic Experiment, Arueyingho had taken darkroom adventure into the future, perhaps pre-empting the digital age of photography. Such experiments, in portraits include, Rose, Aje in the Studio, Ebele and Aje in Clay, all dated 1983. 

  As much as such a very innovative approach to art exhibition is laudable, it would be more appreciated with wider viewership beyond the artist's academic environment. Perhaps, a tour exhibition, in future, could be possible, particularly for the essence of documenting the past via wider spread - in viewership - of the contents.

  In Arueyingho 's work, art historians interested in periods could have quite a volume to devour. More salient of Early Search's appearance is that fact that the Nigerian art space has a deficit of specialised documentation, particularly in the process or medium of art making. 

  "My search in media for my visual expressions has been very tedious but interesting," he says in his Artist Statement. "This is so because visual art on its own is an all encompassing process and product that teases any one that has passion for whatever goes by this nomenclature."

  He recalled that then his early search revolved around mostly medium such as graphics, drawings, prints, textiles, embroidery, metal and wood, of which he said "were exhibited in one joint and 12 group art exhibitions."

  However, other solo exhibitions would reveal more aspects of his visual experiments and adventures. He recalls how, over the years, his interactions with humans, places and materials have reshaped his perception of events. Such experience, he notes, made it necessary for him to use as many medium as "appropriate" to release his artistic outburst.

  Excerpts from his Artist Statement: "As a professional teacher, it is incumbent on me to document, visually, how it had been before the arrival of digital art. Posters for example, were done with T-squares, rulers, drawing instruments, letrasets, etc to produce some of the works I have displayed. Deep etchings produced from metals cut deep with hydrochloric acid, serigraphs produced from manually blocked open meshes with enamel paint, and blurred effects or chiaroscuro on portraits, produced using graphite are exhibited to remind our students that, though the technology I used was not as advanced as what is obtained today, appreciable results were still possible.

  “Considering the time frame, most of the works for this exhibition were produced between 1983 and 1990. As my debut solo art exhibition, it is to show-case my explorations and experimentations with different media, like posters, graphite, ink, wood, metal, textiles, etc, etc. It is hoped that peoples reactions to this exhibition would act as catalyst to more experimentation and new findings.