Retro Africa announces a major solo exhibition by the award-winning multidisciplinary artist Ken Nwadiogbu this spring, presenting a new series of paintings representing Nwadiogbu’s experiences living in Nigeria; an installation branded ‘Jesus of Lübeck’, a canoe referencing the Badagry Slave Trade; and an animated NFT series of a digital recreation of “the migrant”. This exhibition marks Nwadiogbu’s inaugural solo exhibition in Nigeria, and Retro Africa’s first NFT launch.
PAINTINGS:
Nwadiogbu is credited for introducing the “Contemporealism” movement, a fusion that is primarily centred on Hyper-Realism and Contemporary art. Featuring a new series of twelve paintings, Nwadiogbu captures figuratively painted memories to drive conversations about the way of life of people living in Nigeria. For Nwadiogbu, it is his hope that these people begin to interact with the viewer, constantly expressing what it feels like to be them.
INSTALLATION:
Branded ‘Jesus of Lübeck’, a decorated canoe takes reference from the Badagry Slave Trade. A 5th voyage sets away but the migrants restrict movement and try to capsize the boat. Migrants in this installation, are represented by painted boxes of faces of people living in Nigeria. Nwadiogbu was captivated by the utility of the cardboard box as a parcel and a global trade metaphor, and how it arguably reflects the migrant experience. In the installation, each box holds a past, present and future, to be transported across oceans, and mountains, and to eventually land at a distant destination. Each box is painted with its personal identifier (the faces of people in Nwadiogbu’s life) but the stacking nods towards the collective.
Ken Nwadiogbu said: “For me, this is a statement on migration in this time. It is me encouraging people not to follow the “ship of no return”. It’s great to migrate, but even greater to return. If we keep leaving (without plans of returning), there’ll be nobody to champion change in the country.”
NFT: JOURNEY MERCIES:
Journey Mercies is an animated series of a digital recreation of the migrant. Here, the migrant has gone through relaxed selection, where the hands have become obsolete and the legs can’t stop moving, journeying to places familiar and unfamiliar to us. Nwadiogbu wants to stir up conversations about migration. What does it really mean to us, and why do we desire it?
The animated character ‘The Migrant’ was conceived by Nwadiogbu and his team in 2021, and since then, Nwadiogbu has grown his understanding of the importance of telling stories on migration. These NFTs are the first rendered clips from the film ‘Journey Mercies’, an animation movie showing the digital representation of the migrant.
Co-curated by Retro Africa Founder and Creative Director Dolly Kola-Balogun and Curator Maurice Chapot, they said “As the UK recently announced in a dramatic statement the outsourcing of Asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, migration took the light once again as a serious, and challenging matter of concern on the global stage. In playful colours and simples forms, Ken Nwadiogbu critically addresses this sensitive subject, inviting us to embrace new perspectives. Using personified cardboard boxes as vivid metaphors of black migrants, he plays around with the parcels’ disposable nature, underlining the dehumanisation process at work in the migration politics.”
Ken Nwadiogbu said: “There’s no one perspective of looking at the world. Your view of how you see the world is different from my view. I believe the rare ability to see the world from a different perspective other than yours is what humanity is all about. Empathy thrives from there, Ubuntu becomes achievable.
A different perspective is an exhibition that explores the social life of Nigerians. How we live, love, and survive, even in the midst of many political crises. These works are captured memories of experiences in Nigeria, figuratively painted to drive conversations about the way of life of people living here.
For me, it is my hope that these people begin to interact with you, constantly expressing what it feels like to be them”.
