An Art Scene Seen through a Collector’s Eyes 

Even when it is yet to live up to its stated promise to “democratise” art appreciation, the recently-held Coronation Art Gallery’s exhibitions, whose second edition featured Dotun Sulaiman’s collection, remain a commendable initiative. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke writes 

Seething beneath the almond-shaped eyes of the young lady in the jigsaw puzzle-like multi-hued oil on canvas portrait painting is an unmistakable glint of mirth. The lady, whose scarf-covered head is resting on a clenched fist, seems to be posing for a camera. Isn’t it interesting how the excitement in her eyes matches her charming grin?

This 52 x 42-inch painting from Rom Isichei’s patented Crossroads Series, meticulously patterned in impasto, not only featured, among other works, in an exhibition held at the lobby of the Coronation Plaza’s main building in Lagos’ upscale Victoria Island on Thursday, August 17, but it also adorned the invitation card and the cover of this year’s Coronation Art Gallery exhibition catalogue.

About this exhibition, which picked up where the previous one (held on May 13 last year and which displayed works in the collection of the Coronation Capital chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, at the same venue) had left off, it offered a cursory glance at the private collection of Adedotun Sulaiman, another corporate leading light who currently heads several corporate organisations as chairman. Cursory glance because it would have been impossible to display all the works in his vast collection all at once at the venue. It is, perhaps, for this reason that a statement published in the exhibition catalogue alluded to the fact that the exhibition was only offering “an insight into Sulaiman’s personal desire to promote and invest in diverse artistic practices across various geographical regions on the continent.”

It is also for the same reason that the curatorial discretion of Ugoma Ebilah, on whom the unenviable lot of putting these works together fell again—having curated the last year’s edition—was highly commended at the event, which officially opened at 7 p.m. Indeed, it would have been a daunting task sifting through the enormous collection to arrive at a thematic coherence of some sort.

Regardless of the obvious desirability of a thematic unity, such niceties would, at best, have been deemed tangential to the whole point of the glitzy event, which included availing the larger public of the opportunity to engage with these works that have hitherto been accessible to a few. Besides, it is not impossible that many, even among the collector’s close associates, could have been seeing some of the works for the first time.

Still, there hasn’t been much evidence that much progress has been made with regards to the endeavour’s raison d’être, which Aig-Imokhuede affirmed at the gallery’s opening ceremony last year was to “democratise” art appreciation and collection. Rather, the fact that the August 17 exhibition took its time consolidating on whatever gains its predecessor might have made in terms of the sensitisation of the art public by holding over a year later might not have helped matters.

Neither does it help the cause of the organisers of the event that the excitement around the Coronation Art Gallery’s exhibitions wanes so soon after their by-invitation-only soirées. But then, these endeavours, tokenist though they may appear, still deserve commendation. This is especially true in a blossoming art scene like Lagos’s.

Of course, while a casual stroll through the exhibition hall would quickly have acquainted an uninitiated viewer with the evolution and quirks of the local art scene, it would be incorrect to assume on that account that this was an accurate portrayal of contemporary Nigerian art. 

Without the works of some pivotal artists, like Olu Amoda, Raqib Bashorun, Sam Ovraiti, Olu Ajayi, and Olusegun Adejumo, among others, it would be an uphill task for the first-timer to conjure a rounded picture of the diverse and bustling sub-sector. That, in any case, clearly wasn’t the stated objective of the exhibition. In many cases, a private collection tends to say more about the collector than it does about the art scene. And that is, after all, why it is called a private collection.

Talking about the collection, besides featuring the masterly works by Ben Enwonwu, Ablade Glover, Isaac Emokpae, and Muraina Oyelami, it made quite an effort hastily scanning across subsequent generations of Nigerian artists. Works by Abiodun Olaku, Ben Osaghae, Lemi Ghariokwu, Samuel Ebohon, Reuben Ugbine, Francis Donedo, Kehinde Sanwo (whose acrylic on canvas painting, “Old Elephant House”, was erroneously attributed to the Revolving Art Incubator, Lagos’s founder, Jumoke Sanwo, in the catalogue), and Oyerinde Olotu jostle among the works of others like Segun Fagorunsi, Tega Akpokona, Kola Anidugbe, Fatai Adewale, UK’s Adabalu, and Oso Kehinde for the viewer’s attention. But in the midst of the Babel of artistic expressions, Marcellina Akpojotor’s 2018 48 x 36-inch mixed-media painting, depicting a young woman sitting on a tiled floor beside what looks like a sideboard with her face concealed behind an open red book, asserts itself as a new discovery.

It is helpful to keep in mind that this collection took years to assemble and likely reveals much more about Sulaiman’s journey in collecting art than is immediately obvious. As for the works, whose historicity is incontestable, they can only whet an aficionado’s appetite for more.

Meanwhile, it is with fervent anticipation that the art public awaits another Coronation Art Gallery’s exhibition.