Art Twenty One Holds Exhibition in Lagos

A renowned art space and platform dedicated to promoting local and contemporary art in Nigeria, Art Twenty One, will have its doors open from October 12 to November 7, 2018 at Eko Hotel and Suites Victoria Island, Lagos exhibiting the “Layers of Time and Place: What Lies Beneath (2018)”.

In a statement by the platform, “Layers of Time and Place: What Lies Beneath (2018)” is a solo exhibition by photographer Abraham Onoriode Oghobase, inspired by his first trip to Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria where he was fascinated by the vastly different terrain from the urban life of Lagos, his birth home.

He found the man-made ponds and lakes, which form a dominant part of the modern landscape city of Jos and its surrounding areas as well as the prevalent mining of tin deposits to be visually striking, it stated.

The statement quoted the Founder of Art Twenty One and sponsor of the “Layers of Time and Place” Caline Chagoury, while commenting on the work as saying: “The spectacular thing about Abraham’s work is how he has succeeded in capturing scenes and moments that are assumed to have been overtaken by time and event.

“Layers of Time and Place vividly displays the connection between man and his environment, providing us with visual pleasure of our history and of the beauty around us in Nigeria. It is certainly a work that every lover of art should see.”

On his part, the artist Oghobase stated: “Layers of Time and Place ultimately aims to provide an opportunity to experience the antiquity and life of a people, using history as a framework to see beyond the image, stretch the limits of perspective and imagination and delve deeper into the sense and meaning of a place.”

The resulting body of Oghobase’s work, sponsored by Art Twenty One, is a cross-sectional study of moments frozen in time, detailing his experience in and around Jos.

According to the statement, the series reveal multiple layers of the artists’ personal encounter with the unique topography of Plateau State – bare grasslands and ancient rock formations, all indelibly scared by human pursuits of the past and present.

Art Twenty One’s exhibition will include digitally altered self-portraits of British colonial history, dusty backdrops of Jos’ mining legacy, installation of rock specimens highlighting the materiality of the work, close-up self-portraits of natural environment interfacing with humans and images revealing artisanal miners and herders.