Bloom Art Presents ‘Uniting Forms’ for Public Viewing

Esther Oluku

Bloom Art, an independent art gallery, presents the ‘Uniting Forms’ exhibition featuring a rich array of sculptures masterfully crafted in the most recent works of eight notable Nigerian artists.

The exhibition which opened on Saturday, October 26, will run till late November and is curated by multi-arts curator and founder, Bloom Art Gallery, Ms. Ugoma Ebilah.

Sharing the inspiration behind the exhibition, Ebilah explained that as art evolves, she hopes that the variety of sculptural forms presented at the exhibition will raise and continue the conversation around how artists are exploring new media to embody facets of social and cultural development and tell diverse cultural narratives.

The exhibition is a special focus on the works of Boma Joe-Jim featuring other artists among whom are, Adeyinka Akingbade, Angela Isiuwe, Dare Adenuga, Olumide Onadipe, Peter Adelaja, Richardson Ovbiebo, and Uchay Joel Chima, all of whom emerged from various indigenous Art Schools, and also live and practice in the country.

They have in their relatively new works, found muse in the female subject, through which they explore a broad spectrum of human issues including the society, environment and conditions.

Boma Joe-Jim’s work offers recognizable female torsos in wood, capturing elegance, beauty, delicateness and fluidity at different moments. A seasoned sculptor mentored by the legendary Bisi Fakeye, Joe-Jim had brought his over 25 years’ experience in practice at the Universal Art Studio, Lagos, to bear on his latest pieces, contriving such gait that patronizes our sense of today’s perfect model.

Adeyinka Akingbade, a painter, photographer and graphic designer has projected seemingly mono-chromatic, pale images of human forms in juxtaposition, from an otherwise two-dimensional surface in his mixed-media, paper-heavy body of work titled “Testimonial”. These works which manifest as contoured 3D-like folds possess extended meanings beyond their physical look, and offer suggestions on the artist’s interest in (improvised) materiality as a meaningful composite in minimalism.

A product of the Auchi Art School, Angela Isiuwe is a painter and multimedia artist famous for her minimalist, but striking abstract figures. She is represented in this collection by several of her delicate metal sculptures; a relatively less-circulated aspect of her rich artistic repertoire. These works draw themes from the socio-cultural and economic disposition of the woman in society, and very typical of Angela, properly place the female gender just as they are, without casting them in a partisan frame of feminism.

Dare Adenuga’s avant-garde mixed-media fashions female forms and images with twines on the surface of his colorful canvas to weave embroidered imageries and metaphors analogous to human dispositions. “Do I say yes, Do I say no” and “Maidens’ Roomy Talks”, are a few examples of moments of pertinent contemplations and conversations amongst women.

He further takes on a serious subject in his Self-Appreciation series in terracotta which depicts nude plump women in delightful postures of beauty. Here, the artist lends his voice to the contemporary discourse of what constitutes beauty against the backdrop of prevalent body-shaming of overweight people in society with its wider psychological implications.

Peter Adelaja is a dancer and sculptor from the Ife School, who during his experiments at the annual Harmattan Workshop organized by iconic artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya, has used the stone medium, among other materials, to translate his ideas about interconnectivity, dynamic energies and the underlying idea that the space humans occupy isn’t limited by geography, but permeates into the metaphysical, psychological and sublime environments.

Uchay Joel Chima’s educational thematic concerns are largely based on environmental and social issues in Nigeria and beyond, including climate change and global warming, as he attempts to proffer solutions. His art incorporates a wide range of materials including charcoal, sand, strings, wax, disused sacks and paint to create thought-provoking works such as “Glowing Shadow” which features in this show.

Richardson Ovbiebo utilises disused industrial objects, or utilities often repurposed to emphasize the relevance of many things we consider wastes. His works in this exhibition features wheels, metal lanterns, motor plugs and metal sheets, used to fabricate human busts to depict his subject.

Olumide Onadipe is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose idiosyncratic sculptures are built using diverse media including plastics. His work stimulates conversations on socio-political issues often applied as visual metaphors, with a propensity to arouse public social consciousness. Olumide studied arts and education at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos.

With a collective artistry spanning over 100 year, Uniting Forms delves into the intersections, harmony and tension between distinct forms, materials, and artistic visions, fostering a dialogue on shape, space, physicality and unity.