“Coming Home”, is Victor Ekpuk’s first solo exhibition in Nigeria in over a decade. This exhibition features Ekpuk’s new project that is inspired by his experiences in Nigeria during a four months stay as an Artist in Residence with Arthouse Foundation in Lagos in 2015. In a departure from his usual medium, the works in this exhibition are experiments with three-dimensional forms.
Ekpuk work frequently explores the human condition, drawing upon a wide spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses. In his current body of work, he explores the head as a symbol for psychic and physical conditions of daily living in Nigeria.
Victor Ekpuk is a Nigerian-born artist based in Washington, DC. He is renowned for his glyph-like paintings and drawings that are inspired by the aesthetic philosophies of indigenous African art forms like nsibidi, uli, and graphic symbols from diverse cultures. Ekpuk reimagines these symbols to form a personal style of mark making that results in the interplay of art and writing.
Victor Ekpuk obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria in 1989. He brought his minimalist approach of reducing form to essential lines to his cartoons and illustrations in the Daily Times, a leading Nigerian newspaper, in the 1990s. His artworks are in such prestigious collections as the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, Newark Museum, The World Bank, Hood Museum, Krannert Art Museum, United States Art in Embassies Art Collection, and Fidelity Investment Art Collection.
Ekpuk’s works have been featured at the 12th Havana Biennial (Cuba), Dakar Biennial (Senegal), Hood Museum (New Hampshire), Fowler Museum (California), Museum of Art and Design (New York), Newark Museum (New Jersey), The World Bank (Washington DC), Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, (Washington DC), New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), and the 1st Johannesburg Biennial (Johannesburg).
Date: April 9th 2016
Venue: Renault Showroom, 43B, Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
Time:6:00PM
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