in the MAKING

“in the MAKING” explores a diverse selection of seven entirely distinctive artists at different stages in their careers. Each artist is unique in their personal journey towards self-expression, social justice and realising their transformative ideals. 

Three traits are regularly found in successful artists:desire, courage and commitment. In this exhibition we explore each of those traits, as expressed through different mediums and offer an ethnographic study of seven visual artists from diverse backgrounds and locations whose practices embody them. Our three headliners feature Duke Asidere, a national icon in contemporary African art, whose use of classical mediums, notably bare acrylic on canvas, are continually re- examined and re-experienced as a quasiavant-garde expression of the commonalities in the daily routine of the Nigerian individual and the Nigerian experience. Visiting artist, Ida Marie Corell is an artist, musical poet, performer, researcher and synesthetic experimentalist from Munich, Germany. Her collages offer a glimpse into her worldview, drifting through cities one at a time, while harnessing the core distinctiveness of each new place she seeks to uncover.

Bob-Nosa is a multidisciplinary artist and leader of Protest Art Studio, whose focus on social injustice exposes problems plaguing the Nigerian society. He dares to provoke through his characterisation and to include the risqué in his regular depiction of Nigeria’s cultural and social sphere.

In contrast, we equally have four young and dynamic millennial artists each based in Lagos and each seeking to express their daily realities through art. These young innovators at the infancy stage of their artistic careers offer a compelling glimpse into the mind and reality of the young Nigerian prodigy. Ken Nwadiogbu is a Nigerian born Multidisciplinary Artist and the Pioneer of Contemporealism - Hyperrealism and Contemporary Art.Yusuff Aina is a multidisciplinary artist who works using a medium called AINAISM- a self-named technique of creative lines, African patterns and symbols. Emmanuel Adebayo Adeyemi “El Bayo” is a recycling visual artist and a painter, inspired by his father and his mucky environment in Gbagada, Lagos. ElBayo is on a mission to redeem the earth of her dirt, recreate and achieve a beautiful life out of her, Mother earth. Lekan Abatan is a young Hyper realist artist based in Bariga, who contrasts his life-like portraits with Ankara Fabrics, creating a unique juxtaposition between dark shadows and vibrant colours.

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