Yinka Olatunbosun
Bracing the pandemic, the founder and creative director, Mrs Folashade Abiola of Fobally Art World Africa, opened a gallery named Fobally Art Gallery online to showcase the best of African Art to the world. Working with Chichi Michael, the Tech Director, Fobally Art World Africa, the centre explored technology to tell stories and increase visibility for art, managing artists’ database using management systems and setting prices for art works.
Fast forward to 2022, a physical gallery with the same name was opened near Goshen Estate, Lekki where a wide variety of works from multi-generation artists are on display. Beyond exhibitions, the space has been a hub for art competitions, workshops and conversations.
Its inaugural show curated by Moses Ohiomokhare opened on Sunday November 26 featuring works of Dr Kunle Adeyemi, Segun Alonge, Akan David and 17 other artists.
Abiola revealed that the gallery itself was set up in response to a gap in the art scene.
“I realised the need to support the marketing of artworks and capacity building,” Abiola says. “Most artists do not have enough platforms to showcase their skills and build a satisfying career. We are a community of artists shaking the world.”
Segun Alonge, a painter with a knack for landscape painting, revealed how his career in art started from his childhood drawings of comics. After trying his hands on several art forms including music and sculpting, he met Dr. Wale Ajayi in his second year as an undergraduate who introduced him into oil painting.
“I finished my first degree in 2006 and for my second degree, I proceeded to Birmingham University in the UK and finished 2010. Ever since then, I have been experimenting with paintings from abstract to impressionism.”
Sometimes, Alonge would texturise the surface of the canvas using sawdust and glue to give a dreamy effect. Still, the aesthetics of his works run deeper than the beauty that meets the eye. Influenced by political consciousness and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s music, Alonge makes socio-political commentaries with some of his works.
“For instance, in this work titled “Solace,” I use the image of the mother and child to depict the relationship that ought to exist between the government and the citizens. As we all know, mothers love to take care of their children. And they are responsible for the development of their children. That is why I use this to depict the idea that the government should be responsible for the well-being of its citizens, not taking from them. They ought to see to it that the citizens feel protected. When I went to the UK for my masters, it was my first opportunity to travel and live abroad. I was like why can’t we have the same system? We even have more resources that these people have.”
With David Akan, literature plays a huge role forming the context of some of his illustrations.
Using graffito technique, the fine art graduate of University of Uyo is excited to show his new works that hinges on the manipulation of light as an allegory to his message.
In the piece titled “Inner Light,” Akan juxtaposed light and darkness in interrogating man’s search for purpose and meaning in life.
“Light is synonymous with knowledge and wisdom and enlightenment. The image shows a female seated in a meditative state. The chakra is associated with wisdom and I placed that on her forehead there. I try to evoke a sense of emotion so that they can think about things that are not really mundane, like higher knowledge and purpose, spirituality and related concepts.”
In another piece titled “True Light,” the artist probes man’s search for enlightenment and spiritual awakening. Using the candle as a symbol of the light within every individual, the artist seems to elevate reason over emotion.
