Saturday 29 September 2012

A Canvas… Olotu’s painterly homage

By Tajudeen Sowole
About 25 years in documentary art, painter Oyerinde Olotu, who is known for rendering places and people of old on canvas, pays homage to Lagos.

The artist’s choice of Lagos in the theme This Lagos… A Canvas though creates a curious moment, but his familiar rendition hardly changes, so suggest some of the works previewed ahead of his solo art exhibition opening at Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos on October 1. It will run till October 8, 2102.

As unique as Olotu’s monochrome identity is on canvas, the fragility of a predictive style and technique is a challenge, which was distilled from some of his recent exhibitions. However, quite a number of works from This Lagos…A Canvas reveal that indeed, the artist can still spring surprises.

At the same venue, and in October last year, Olotu showed Cities, People and Countryside, a body of work that treated diverse subject matters across the country. For his latest outing, he stated that the show is more significant because it’s the first time a whole body of work will be dedicated to “Lagos, where I had my childhood and built my art.”  From referenced captures of colonial era architectures and post-independence streetscapes, to the ongoing urban rehabilitation in Lagos, Olotu articulated his passion for continuous documentation of the state.

He insisted his canvas is not likely to change as “I take special interest in history, which has influenced me in documentary art.”
Colonial Residence, a painting from Oyerinde Olotu’s exhibition This Lagos… A Canvas… 
FROM an aerial view, Olotu’s palette adds beauty to the houses on stilts titled The Makoko Series, a depiction of recently demolished fragile structures on Lagos Mainland waterside. And had the occupiers seen Olotu’s rendition, perhaps, they could have used the splendid piece to support their claims of comforts in squalour as the artist’s creative use of light and shade depicts.

Some of the works such as Colonial Residence, Hospital, The Premier Convoy under the pre and independence section of the works offer an insight into the trend in infrastructure and fashion of the eras.

And comes two worlds of contemporaneity in a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) depiction, A New Lagos and the slum of central Lagos Island, Isale Eko. In A New Lagos is a familiar rendition, which looks like a series from the artist’s last show, Cities, People and Countryside. 

Art of documenting places and people on canvas could be as delicate as intellectually tasking, particularly where copyright of references is involved. For Olotu, it’s about adding extra creative content. “I get my references, then  compose and recompose, juxtapose where necessary and then balance up my composition to get my final picture,” he explained. Part of such composite, it has been noticed, is the inclusion of some odd figures and colours, particularly in the architectural and streetscape of memorable references.

And still on the theme, the artist commended his wife,  for being the inspiration “when she told me that ‘you have had a greater part of your life in Lagos, why not dedicate your next show to Lagos?” 

In another realm of memorable art, the artist is also exhibiting one of his past works, a piece from his period of common painting. Rendered in colours and of Ikorodu Road capture, the work, he disclosed “was a gift to a friend 25 years ago.” He said he saw the work recently and could not take his eyes off it. “So, I paid him and collected the work back.” 

Among the works are those exhibited during his first solo show at the now rested Viv Gallery in 2001. He was Overall Best Student when he graduated in 1981.

To boost creative enterprise, Nigerian designer partners Turks


Design and metal sculptural skills from Africa and Europe melt into creative enterprise as Lagos-based Svengali Designs and Turkish-owned Poliform jointly offer visual decorative and functional aesthetics.

The joint venture christened Svengali+Poliform is aimed at giving the Nigerian creative sector, particularly the architecture and construction industry a boost, designer and CEO of Svengali, Anslem Tabansi stated when the Turks partners visited his gallery in Lagos.

As the president of Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN), Tabansi has led the group to the international stage when it had its first exhibition in Lagos and hosted the president of the International Federation of Interior Designers, (IFI), Mr. Shrikant Nivasarkar.
Caglar Olcer of Poliform, Istanbul, Turkey (left), Anslem Tabansi of Svengali Designs, Lagos and founder of Poliform, Nejat Olcer in Lagos…recently
Caglar Olcer of Poliform noted that though the relationship between his group and Svengali is short, but strong enough to believe that the partnership will work. Olcer, accompanied by his father and founder of the Turkish group, Nejat Olcer said “we have always known Nigeria as a big economy in Africa, but not really sure of how to do business here until we met Anselm.”

In a joint statement, it is stated that Svengali and Poliform join forces for a new age in metal sculptural balustrade industry. The group hoped that “with competitive prices, short periods of delivery and continuous technical support, this new joint venture company will serve the latest” in state of the art sculptural metals for the functional and decorative sections of Nigeria’s design industry. 

Poliform, located in Istanbul, Turkey stated that for over 25 years, its signature has doted several developments in balustrade systems and sculptural metal door accessories.

Svengali is an interior design and wood/metal sculpture outfit with gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Tabansi-led IDAN, few months ago, continued its efforts at promoting the design section of the creative industry when it organised a show at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos to mark World Interiors Day. The show featured design pieces, art, craft and other areas of visual arts categorised as accessories in design parlance.
From paintings, miniature figural and abstract table pieces to ceramics and other works that either serve both decorative and functional purposes such as window blinds and mirrors, the show reflected the strong message that even in the period of distress, luxury could be an elixir.

Themed Finding The New In The Old, Tabansi stated, “the theme of the 2012 show challenges practitioners to look at our past as we prepare for the future.”

Indeed, the theme is more relevant in Nigeria, particularly in the corporate sector and highbrow private residence, which have zero local or native content in the designs of office and residential interiors as well as tour destinations such as hotels.

Oldest post-independence group art studio?

With due respect to other similar group initiatives in Nigeria’s post independence art, an appraisal of the last 52 years of art could place the Universal Studios of Art, Lagos as a resilient bridge between art trainings – formal or informal – and the mainstream practice.

USA, as it is fondly called, debatably, is Nigeria’s oldest post-independence group art studio. Three to four of ten art pieces of Nigerian origin, in art galleries, public spaces and private collections across the country  – exported abroad too – in the last 27 years, perhaps, have a direct or indirect link to the Lagos-based Universal Studios of Art.
File photo of Universal Studios of Art, Lagos (2010).
Situated inside the premise of National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, at least, 50 students from across the higher institutions of learning in the country have been sharpening their skills as industrial trainees, every year, in the studios, for close to three decades. This much, the founding members of the studios “modestly” estimated.

The studios, a private initiative, though has its origin from the current space of the National Gallery of Art (NGA), it, perhaps, the only one of its kind in the country from where full time studio artists have been feeding the visual arts industry and also receiving trainees from nearly every art schools in the country. Also, those who are not formally trained, according to sources, come to the studios to acquire various skills in visual arts.

The studios started in 1980 when the Ministry of Culture invited some artists to use the premises of the National Art Studio to work.
  However, in 1995, the artists were asked to move, due to change in the administration of the NGA. That development led to what is now known as Universal Studios of Artists, a group of 12 professionals who run 11 departments or studios at a spot that was once used by the National Theatre management as a mechanic workshop. Among the 12 artists are four founding members, who are also board of trustees: carver, Bisi Fakeye; sculptor, Bunmi Babatunde; painter, Biodun Olaku; sculptor, Monday Akhidue.

The chairman, board of trustees, Babatunde sometimes ago stressed that “for 30 years, we were having an average of 50 students per year.” According to him, “a large number of practising artists of today sharpened their skills here after school.”

With such a profile, observers believe that quite some literary volumes on 50 years of Nigerian art can be written from the studios.  
Extracts from an earlier piece Professionalism… The disconnect in 50 years of art published on Tuesday, 14 September 2010 in The Guardian