OPEN DAILY 11am – 7pm

CONINGSBY GALLERY LONDON, W1T 4RJ

African Art Wave is pleased to present FACES OF THE HOMELAND, a group exhibition featuring Angela Chilufya, Somunachima Akudu, David Olatoye, Adulphina Imuede, Richmond Agamelah, and Oloruntobi Aina.

Curated by Mary Fisayo, the exhibition will open on January 31st 2022, and will run until February 13th at Coningsby Gallery, London.

Each exhibiting Artist connects the dots between African and Western traditions to celebrate and honour the beauty and brilliance of black men and women.

The exhibition transcends borders and explores works by artists from Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, as well as the diaspora.

Somunachima Akudu

Somunachima Akudu is a British-born Nigerian artist who lives and works in London. The focus of her paintings is to celebrate the beauty and brilliance of black women. Her paintings show that black women are multifaceted, renaissance women. More importantly, her paintings show that black women are soft and delicate beings who have love, joy, intelligence, vulnerability, creativity, and femininity, which they define for themselves. Her selected shows include Rest and Repair, Platform Black (2021) and Bodies in Nature, Gaia’s Garden (2021).

Oloruntobi Aina

Oloruntobi is a modern visual artist who works and resides in Ibadan, Nigeria. His distinct personal style dates back to his boyhood and can be seen in most of his works. With his enthusiasm for his craft, Oloruntobi is focused on the sensory nature of art. He has taken part in several art exhibitions in his home country and internationally. Some of his past exhibitions include “Individuality” – Peninsula Museum of Art, California; “Awakening” – Noho Studios, London.

Angela Chilufya

Richmond Agamelah

Richmond Agamelah is a Ghanian based contemporary artist. The characters in Richmond Agamelah’s work take on a performative role. Using discarded plastics, from phone cards to broken rulers, Agamelah adopts straight-edged materials and reimagines their utility, as tools to help facilitate the portrayal of our emotional attributes as humans. Love and empathy, for example, are displayed by carving out the acrylic paint with a rhythmic spontaneity, in which the figure’s composition appears fuller and playfully colourful. This association Agamelah makes between emotional characteristics and the materiality of paint is what makes his work truly unique.

Adulphina Imuede

Adulphina is a Lagos based artist. Her art is stylised, surreal, and sometimes experimental. In a past interview with Adulphina, she described her art as being a reflection of her thoughts and who she is. Her work is represented mostly in stylised portraitures of women with different auras and shades of brown. Adulphina’s works have been exhibited across the globe. Some of her past exhibitions include: ART x Lagos 6th edition fair; “Locality and The Status Quo” Group Exhibition – Pacers Gallery, Lagos; “The Human Experience” Group Exhibition by The Project Space –  Gallery Fanon, Johannesburg and “I Love Who You Are, I Love Who You Ain’t” Group Exhibition – Bill Brady Gallery, Miami

David Olatoye

Born 1995 , Ogun state, Nigeria, David Olatoye traces his artistic path from a difficult childhood, morphing his domestic upbringing alongside two sisters by reconstructing the environs they grew up into an idealized settings. Olatoye’s heritage became the focal point of his visual practice. His acrylic paintings are inlaid with ballpoint pen and demonstrate a delicate and meditative approach with particular attention to texture and form. Olatoye received mentorship under the tutelage of Tope Fatunmibi. His works have featured in the celebration of Contemporary African Art in Vernissage at the 2018 Circle de Lorraine in Brussels. In addition, his works have been exhibited in a number of exhibitions, including Pacers Gallery, Lagos and Ronchini Gallery, London.