Soto Gallery Hosts A Solo Show To Hold a Gaze

Yinka Olatunbosun

In a series of eleven portraits, Tunde Owolabi, in his first exhibition with the gallery, considers the pervasiveness of so-called informal work alongside the increasing marginalisation of informal workers.

A full-time studio artist whose practice spans painting, photography, textile, and graphic design, Owolabi believes the works in To Hold a Gaze are reminders that such encounters are not only possible but necessary.

The people who look back in these portraits, with few alterations, are drawn from life, positioned, in the process of plying their trades, exactly as the artist met them.

These chance encounters were central to the development of the project as they offered Owolabi the chance to record both the likeness and setting of his subjects as well as an effect of compressed energy—the result of finding moments of stillness and connection in the busyness of midday Lagos.

The show which opens with a private viewing on July 1
will be opened to the public from July 2nd to July 16th.

Under the tutelage of the late Professor Abayomi Barber, Owolabi began painting professionally in the early 2000s, after graduating from Yaba College of Technology with a degree in Graphic Design.

Alongside his work as a painter, he is the founder and Creative Director of Ethnik Afrika, a multidisciplinary Afrocentric design and photography studio based in Lagos, Nigeria. As a designer, his works are diverse, exploring different materials, especially the woven fabric Aso-Oke. As a textile designer, his goal is to tell the African story through patterns and color one weave at a time. He has participated in a few group exhibitions and solos.

Owolabi’s group shows include ‘Gods of this Age’ at Didi Museum, Lagos, 2001; ‘Lines and Colour’ at Pats’ Restaurant, Lagos 2001; Guinness Group Exhibition at Harlequin Gallery, Lagos, 2003, ‘Inner Thoughts’ at Nimbus Art Center, Lagos, 2003 as well as ArtX, Lagos, 2019

His previous solo exhibitions include ‘African Elegance’ at Camden Art Gallery, London, 2009, The Woven Beauty at Red Door Gallery, Lagos, 2014 and ‘As We Were, As We Are’ at Cromwell Ngobeni Art Studio, Johannesburg, 2022.