A Glimpse of ‘Entities & Identities’ at Mydrim Gallery

A solo exhibition of transformative artworks by the artist-art educator, Kolawole Olojo-Kosoko holds the Lagos audience spellbound with its strong aesthetic value. Yinka Olatunbosun reports

Kolawole Olojo-Kosoko is one artist that loves to reinvent himself through his art. At a recent preview of his first major solo exhibition at the Mydrim Gallery, he took the liberty of unfurling his collection. Titled ‘Entities and Identities,’ the show parades 35 works drawn from his 200 paintings as well as printmaking. 

A product of a series of art schools, Olojo-Kosoko currently serves at the Chairman, Society of Nigerian Artists, Lagos Chapter. Before reaching this milestone in his career, he had groomed his turf at the Lagos State Polytechnic before proceeding to the University of Benin for a degree programme in Fine and Applied Science. 

He made a paradigm shift in his career when he proceeded for a postgraduate study at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. He began to rethink his preoccupation with landscape paintings, delving deeper into other skills he had developed outside visual art over time.

“Over the years, I have done textile and interior decoration and a little bit of draftsmanship and architecture. I had worked in an engineering firm. I do building design too. All these led me to this. I worked at the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture and technically veered into visual arts. Within four months of my master’s programme, I realised that I was still doing the same thing. In between that, I stumbled on print making and that was part of my research work. That took me to Kunle Adewale’s studio in Mushin,’’ he recounted.

With a year of industrial attachment at the National Studio (now Universal Studio), he enjoyed tutelage with Abiodun Olaku, a leading painter who added depth to his landscape paintings. His current works at the show which opened on February 26 are markedly different from what his audience are familiar with.

“The more you move around as an artist, the more you are influenced. People will begin to see more of me and other new things. When I had the opportunity of stepping out of the country, my orientation changed. I discovered slow art. The artists dedicate their lives to just a few pieces. My orientation changes along with my studio setting. Abroad, you’d see an artist having a very large studio to himself. When I returned I used a whole floor, three to four rooms as a studio and I still maintained my studio at the Universal studio. When you spread your work around, you will be able to input ideas from time to time,’’ he said.

His series of paintings named ‘Premonition I, II, III and IV’ are described as a museum piece with a visual narrative influenced by the socio-political realities in Nigeria. Using mixed media, he communicates with the viewer on Nigeria’s chaotic state.

“The story started from a small pastel work with the title ‘Bi ogiri oba lanu’ meaning ‘If you don’t have a crack in the house, outsiders won’t have the opportunity to penetrate. After that, I started the bigger one during the subsidy crises. After that, I made three more from other ideas.

” Over the years, we have had the subsidy crises, I use the newspaper cut-outs to tell the story. I use the map of Nigeria as a carrier. All the crises that we have are beginning to make Nigeria shake. People want to break away and we are able to manage it. After tribalism, nepotism, the next level may just be outright war. 

“You will see Nigeria in disarray- in a broken form. While in the war if we are under able to resolve the issues, we will break up finally,’’ he said in reference to the piece which has a broken calabash and a lizard on the foreground.

The assistant curator, Mydrim Gallery, David Oluwatoyin said he was excited about the show, adding that the gallery is willing to work with Olojo-Kosoko as well as other artists. The show runs till March 12.