Photography Exhibition: Alliance Francaise Partners Aize Paul

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

For its fourth Imagery and Visual Exhibition, RA Management NYC, the management arm of photography artist, Aize Muhammed Paul is collaborating with Alliance Francaise to exhibit the 99-image series.

The announcement was made recently at the Mike Adenuga center in Lagos during a media parley. Aize, disclosed that about 59 physical and virtual reality (VR) images would be exhibited within a month, starting with a two-day private exhibition opening on March 24th. Journalists at the media parley had a first-hand experience of the VR images which were quite refreshing.

Tagged ‘Eren Oghe Okhaza – Ekp Oghe ule Obaba’ (a safe place to find purpose for your story), Aize describes the essence of the exhibition as a means to create a sustainable channel for the artist and the market.

He said: “To put the art out there, it’s about the art for me. The idea for my art is to create a sustainable channel for both artist and the market as well. So, the idea is going across Africa, shooting black people and interpreting it into art and get to sell it to people and giving part of the funds back to the people.”

This is following the successful debut of his solo photography exhibition called “Frozen Choices, Sacred Space” in 2020. Aize describes his journey thus far: “I shot my first series during the lockdown and it’s been a glide ever since. Although I already experimented with fashion photography but capturing humans for humanity is certainly one of my life purposes, and having art pioneers such as Nicholas Logsdale, Caroline De Beaufort, Katie Barker and few others approve of my works, which definitely brought a different sense of purpose to my journey as a photography artist”.

Highlighting the inspiration for this exhibition and what he aims to achieve, he said: “The pre-shows for me is exhibiting means to connect by creating a space solely for a spiritual, Tech and Art experience. I want everyone fortunate to be present at the pre-shows to leave with the notion of SELF”. 

Speaking on their collaboration, the marketing manager, Allaince Francaise, Precious Naador said. “We are very keen on promoting art. Alliance is an institution for art and culture, every year we usually have an open call where we call for projects and this project was very intriguing. For us, we are providing the space, we are collaborating technically for communication and anything that will make the exhibition an accomplished project. We like to collaborate with standout projects because it fits our brand and is appealing to the community.”

Aize’s art streak has seen him traverse Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya. A law graduate from Benson Idahosa University Nigeria, with a decade-long history of working in the fashion industry as a Creative Director and Fashion Stylist. 

Aize said: “The ethos of my art is ‘Self’, a means to navigate one’s life purpose. The mission is to inspire individualism, to creatively encourage humanism on a global scale. For artistic purposes, my drive comes from aligning the individuals I capture with a creative process that enables conversation, sustainability and constructive engagement.

 “I use both my native Benin dialect and English in expressing my art. I have had three exhibitions since 2020.  The first was an installation at the 1952 Africa Gallery in Lagos. The next in the series was at my private studio in Lagos. This included a virtual reality experience of my work ranging from archive pieces to the latest. 

 “Lamu, Kenya 2022 was my third installation; this took place at Peponi Hotel, featuring the virtual reality experience and physical prints. Shared experiences from the show reaffirmed the people’s self-awareness and life purpose featuring art and a voice-over narrating tales of life and death.

“Integrating the virtual reality experience to a wider audience proves that creative possibilities are limitless while navigating one’s life.”