Ben Enwonwu MBE: Seven Decades of Artistic Production
by Ladun Ogidan
On April 30, 2015, the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) opened Seven Decades of Artistic Production, a curated exhibition of pencil works, paintings and sculptures by celebrated artist, Ben Enwonwu, regarded as one of the pioneers of modern African art. Providing a glimpse into the artist’s oeuvre, the exhibition also serves as the gallery’s official launch in its new Mayfair space.
Sajid Rizvi, publisher of Saffron Books says, “The exhibition is a timely and well-deserved tribute to the late Nigerian master’s impressive oeuvre, a vigorous nod to his unflagging output over that long period, a quasi-academic retrospective and a survey show to boot for the uninitiated. Compared to many masters of the East or the West who have gone recorded, and even those of the Africa slowly being nudged into limelight by modern appetites and tastes, the seven active decades is more than a lifetime. Building narratives around such a long stretch of creative production is a challenging prospect, so anything new about Enwonwu’s art that’s attempted by galleries, media or academia is a welcome afterword to Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie’s excellent Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist.“
Seven Decades of Artistic Production runs till June 6, 2015.
Ladun Ogidan
Ladun Ogidan is the Deputy Editor of Omenka magazine. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication from Covenant University, Nigeria. Ogidan is also Assistant Curator at the Omenka Gallery, and Chief Operating Officer at Revilo Company Limited, a leading art publishing company in Lagos. She has co-ordinated several exhibitions at home and abroad.
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