Exhibitions Here And Now, Crystal Mosaic Art +More | Art House

[00:00:03][music] Hello and a warm welcome to art house.

[00:00:26]I'm Melinda Kilami. Coming up on the program, [music] we have here and now a collaborative project between two galleries [music] [music] to precision of light in the dark. A solo exhibition. [music] [music] [music] We'll bring you details when at house returns in a moment. Do stay with us.

[00:01:14][music] Art is solace. Art is vision. And when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.

[00:01:34]Let's begin with this collaborative art exhibition titled Here and Now at the Thor Pyramid Art Center in Lagos.

[00:01:44][music] A synergy of creative hubs unfolds at Th Pyramid Art Center [music] and the Tribes Art Africa Gallery in Ecoy Lagos as a presenter collaborative group exhibition [music] titled Here and Now. The showcase features about 20 contemporary artists exploring the narrative [music] shaping Africa's future. Stories of becoming, identity, memory, and environment.

[00:02:26]>> It [snorts] um examines the um elements of memory, presence, the environment, and identity, and how it [music] shapes contemporary African um art in this present moment. K now has a team um identity. [music] Now I tend to bring out the identity of our cultural heritage. [music] You know like I said as Africans and then as Nigerians we need to push out our identity [music] to the world who we are cuz you cannot see those works outside Africa. Maybe when you see them is an African person that creates those works.

[00:03:09]So we want to push out our our cultural heritage through our creative way of expressions.

[00:03:34]My three works basically, in fact, most especially the one in the middle um emphasizes on [music] the theme of the exhibition here and now because you can see the guy is carrying um a lot of fruits and a lot of um three ants are trying to lure him to you know collect the lemons.

[00:03:54]So it's like now you're getting some kind of things that are trying to sway you from um what you already have that is enough. So this is basically what that work is talking about and I I believe it really resonates with the theme of the exhibition. Through painting, material experimentation and symbolic figuration, these artists showcase the weight of inherited histories, personal narratives, and the collective transformation defining contemporary society.

[00:04:26]>> My works um I titled them as a is a is a Euroba word which means um clothe.

[00:04:34]Um my works captures um my cultural heritage as Africans, Nigeria to be precise. So I intend to showcase the world, our cultural heritage as Africans, as Nigerians. So there are so many um culture in Nigeria particularly, but in this particular um exhibition, I I tend to show the Euroba culture. Now, when you look at it, um my works are they don't really have a face. And why?

[00:05:08]It's because I want to remind you that you are from somewhere and you are going somewhere. So you can put yourself in that face that you are saying that doesn't have a face. You can put yourself and okay I'm coming from a cultural background. What do you know about your culture?

[00:05:29]>> My works are based on mental health, human psychology, everything that has to do with the human life. And the works I'm exhibiting today um they're titled My Life is Mine and it is well they they have to do with emotional um instability and stability at the same time.

[00:05:51]>> Impacting the society through art is something that is constant because they tell stories. Individuals are coming with their you know their different stories. For instance, Bella, she talks about um a whole lot when it comes to depression. She's been able to share her experiences and [snorts] interpret it through her work. And what do you take from there? It's not permanent things.

[00:06:19]Those things are not permanent.

[00:06:20]Permanent. It talks about um the temporal state of life as it were.

[00:06:26]Nothing is permanent. There's change, constant change. So the society should see um the essence of change as constant and it will come.

[00:06:37]>> The exhibition asserts that here is never separate from now emphasizing that place, consciousness and time are deeply entangled. It challenges us to reflect on the quiet negotiations between the world around us and our internal experiences. My practice as an artist um basically centers on human um energy and how humans are possess multiple um characteristics. You know as a person as one person you you could be you could be this and you could be that to other people. I could know you as this and I could know you as that and when we get to another place you also still blend in. You you understand?

[00:07:22]So multiplicity in personality. So this is basically what my art speaks about and that as a woman somehow you have another side of you that could feel masculine. The one over there is titled love on me. Everybody deserve to be love and to love you know. Then the one in the middle is titled these lemons are not worth the squeeze. Okay. Then the one over there is titled um the waiting boy. It's describe a face in everybody's life where you have to wait. You don't have a choice but to wait whatever it is. It could be a miracle. It could be you know your expectations and and anything from anybody from from God you know just a waiting season of anybody's life. My works explores um identity, emotions, um culture, human connection and basically anything that makes us human.

[00:08:21]So um this exhibition here and here and now is talking about the present but not just only the present, the past, the present and the future.

[00:08:32]And how um this um three work hand in hand. So is my work. I have three works exhibited here today. um one of them my life my choice the other um still becoming and then um the last one ita of Benin. So um my life my choice firstly it's it shed more light on um the power or how powerful the choices that we make can be. um you me everybody are here today because of the choices individual has made in every uh one part of their life till now. So um it's basically talking about how powerful and um viewers should wait and reflect on the power of the choices that um they they have made or they would make.

[00:09:23]It gives me joy that people like us that are old when we pass on that are younger generation that will continue this thing. It's a very good thing. I am I am my heart is full of joy.

[00:09:37]>> The artists they've been selected from various backgrounds and they've been able to interpret their individual experiences and backgrounds into um conceptualizing the thing and delivering it. So when you come to each painting, you have a different experience at every point in time. Um a particular one for instance is one right behind me by Senolo Chiaka. She talks about um this moment. She talks about waiting. She talks about and she's been able to infuse her own experience into her painting. And so it goes with all of them. There's also the question of background culture. For instance, there's Moses um Bambber. He's a northern um young man and um he's been able to infuse a um the northern culture. He talks about um Derba. He talks about Argongu festival. All of these things shaping his background as a child, as a young man growing up. And then he comes on to infuse it into his work of art. So you come what you see is someone presenting identity without a face and yet identity that resonates with every man every woman. So [snorts] if you go to his painting you look at it and you readily see the different elements and he uses mixed media in his work as well. So at the end of the day, you engage with an experience that lifts you um in a state of wonder and curiosity.

[00:11:13]>> By nurturing talents and supporting innovative practice, these galleries continue to shape the future of African art and encourage meaningful cultural dialogue.

[00:11:25][music] the sheer breath of creativity. Well done to the tag and thought pyramid team. And there's more to enjoy, but that's when at house returns in a moment. Do stay with us.

[00:11:41]>> And these are the works of art you sent in recently.

[00:11:46][music] [music] Let's begin with hairdresser is an oil on canvas work by Iolaashing.

[00:12:01][music] [music] Then this roller tip pen on sketchboard piece called not every act of love is loud is [music] byk Steven.

[00:12:27]>> [music] >> Then between night and day, that's how Cliff Aba titles this acrylic on canvas piece. [music] [music] [music] Never forget that's what this oil on canvas work is all about. [music] [music] Then happiness keeps you sweet, trials [music] keep you strong, sorrows keep you human, and failure keeps [music] you humble. Keep going. That's what Tommy Wagu is telling us with this mixed media on textured learning work called Child Happiness.

[00:13:22][music] Another oil on canvas piece. This one is called My Source by Tundi Abiodum.

[00:13:34][music] >> [music] >> Then from the African Uniqueness series comes this one titled Radiance of Joy.

[00:13:50]The artist says the smile on this piece is contagious. Right.

[00:14:00][music] Then to this acrylic on canvas untitled piece done by any art studio.

[00:14:12][music] [music] Then we wrap things up with a palm wine tapper, a pen on paper piece by Emmanuel Breamman.

[00:14:27][music] And that concludes the works of art you sent in recently. We really appreciate you for sending them in and encourage you as always keep them coming.

[00:14:50][music] Our [music] wordsmith for the week is titled you in my poisey. [music] [music] The world would be dark without your smile. I can't make the comparison of your beauty in simile. [music] You're magnificent. You're the perfect lines for my metaphor. You grant me the ownership of your heart, my faor. The [music] world would be gravy without you as my honortopia.

[00:15:33]You're the very internet for my heart's Wikipedia. Both numbers and letters have no stance to define you. Artistically sketched for this heart of mine to pew.

[00:15:44]For you [music] shall I make lyrics and rhymes a bed. Yeah. Your love won't fly away like a bird. I won't [music] speak in irony, but vividly in angel stanzas.

[00:15:56]Behold, I make you these lines [music] as my confessional canvas. Your aura is the sweetest yet stronger than rhythm.

[00:16:04]In every poem I carve, shall you be my theme. I won't [music] devalue your love that I be not a hubris.

[00:16:12]Truly, this our love trounced all our worries. You're the figure of speech that portrays in my sonnet. [music] I'll keep eulogizing you for being in your love net.

[00:16:29][music] The precision of light in the dark is a solo exhibition by Yago Sanchez at the Integra Art Space in Lagos.

[00:16:41][music] >> [music] [music] >> The intentionality of crystal art is on display at Integral Art Space in Leki Lagos as it holds Spanish artist [music] Yago Sanchez in an exhibition titled the precision of light in the dark.

[00:17:18][music] >> [music] [music] >> Sanchez, a self-taught artist, brings the Spanish craft tradition to Lagos, demonstrating that art extends far beyond traditional [music] painting, drawing, or sculpture.

[00:18:01]He started working with really heavy materials and now he work with 5 mm crystals that is adessive ones and with the velvet is more lighter.

[00:18:13][music] Here I have two works h so one one of them is like the the gin ging so is terms of big quality of crystals doing with more than 30,000 crystal >> through his collection the artist unveils a series of immersive crystal mosaics that transform dramatically when illuminated the interaction of lights with their surfaces truly brings brings the exhibition's title to life.

[00:18:55]>> Yago is a mosaic crystal artist. What's so unique about it is that he uses crystals as opposed to uh uh usually we have tiles. Most people make it with tiles. And even here we do similar things. We use beads. We are famous for that. And this is just a little bit different from that because it's crystals. So um and he's been doing this now for about 10 years and I believe he's been wanting to come to Nigeria for some time. So this is really wonderful to have him here. Now >> what we've come to realize is that there are various forms in which creative express themselves to a canvas. just refreshing to see that there are this there's now a new different medium right as I've gone around I've seen this particular artist use beads and you know crystals and stones to tell art in the most in the most unique way and also to um tell the story of great talent and artist that has lived you know um it's very impressive if I have the opportunity to get any of these I'm pretty sure I'll take all of them and take it to my house you So it's very refreshing to see the um depth of creativity how how it never ends.

[00:20:12]>> I think it's just very beautiful particularly his medium. It's not something you see all the time. I feel like I often see like paintings like you know with brush pencil but seeing actual crystals being put together I think it's very mesmerizing. I think it's like a piece that if you put into your put in your house everyone will always ask oh wow like that's a beautiful piece. It's definitely a showstopper. So, I'm genuinely impressed. Like, I thought he only did like faces, but seeing how he does like different forms of medium like animals, even things that are very like cultural, I think it's just really amazing. And I feel like everyone needs to see this. Like, what cannot explain how beautiful this art pieces are.

[00:20:50]>> The media that the artist is using, the crystals are unusual. And so it's something I mean for me it's the first time I've seen such and uh it's truly amazing. I like the way that it catches the light the different um and and and how the colors come out. So it's a it's a brilliant it's a a brilliant set of works.

[00:21:15]>> The exhibition explores how perception shifts with proximity. From a distance, the art present coherent images, but closer inspection reveals a complex mosaic of virtuous tesser, crystal fragments, marble and glass.

[00:21:30]>> We recognize that Nigeria and indeed West Africa and indeed Africa is ready to host artist instead of us going to them. It's time for them to come to us.

[00:21:44]We have what it takes to host this kind of event and be successful at it as we're doing right now. And it doesn't take away from our homegrown artist. In fact, if anything, it encourages them because now they don't have to go abroad. They can be here the center of art. I want Nigeria to be the center of art for the entire world.

[00:22:07]And I mean that very seriously, quite sincerely, cuz I think we can do it because we produce such great art.

[00:22:14]>> Beyond their visual appeal, these images bridge Spanish craft heritage with the evolving scale of contemporary African art by fostering a dialogue between two traditions with shared histories, which validates the importance of international artistic exchange.

[00:22:35]>> [music] >> We have more to see and enjoy, but that will be on the next episode of Art House.

[00:22:43]>> Next week on Art House [music] condition bend. The exhibition title refers to a common Nigerian proverb as Engio Major Zma uses it to explore the virtues of resilience [music] and adaptation in the face of adversity.

[00:23:08][music] The leather airfare comes to town yet again featuring all forms of craftsmanship using this material.

[00:23:28]>> [music] >> The brilliance of the Nigerian art scene deserves a global audience. Join [music] us in celebrating these extraordinary talents. Like, share, and follow our page to [music] help bring their stories to the world.

[00:23:47][music] Your art house experience doesn't have to end when the show is not on television. Interact with us on our various social media platforms. See any edition of Art House on our website or YouTube page. Join our very interactive Facebook page by joining the group on Art House on channels. We're everywhere.

[00:24:21]That's the program today. It's always a pleasure spending time with you and I look forward to doing it again. Until then, keep the conversation going online on our various social media platforms.

[00:24:33]I'm Melinda Akinami. Have a lovely day.