1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair

From October 15 to 18, 2015, Omenka Gallery will participate in the 3rd edition of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair held at the Somerset House in London. Omenka will present recent work from Ndidi Emefiele’s 'Rainbow' series depicting females in sunglasses constructed from used discs, and often with a touch of Ankara fabric.

 

According to Oliver Enwonwu, Director, Omenka Gallery, “Emefiele adopts the historic practice of using the body symbolically in visual art, dating back to the sculptures and paintings of ancient Egyptians, whose “god-like” pharaoh is often depicted much larger than ordinary mortals, his erect, stiff posture signifying his unyielding majesty and authority. The heads of her female figures are large, bearing semblance to those of traditional Yoruba sculptures, carved disproportionately to other parts of the human body to emphasize its function as the seat of wisdom, upon which the destiny of an individual is carried. Here, the female body becomes a contested site and an important source of information, through  which she challenges established notions of beauty.”

 

The artist explains that a typical ‘Rainbow’ woman is “a reflection of light, she’s an illusion constantly changing. She is as beautiful as you think she is and as toxic as you think she is. What one observer sees is different from what the other observer sees from farther off, even from the same angle, depending on how you choose to engage her. She is like a rainbow. She spans a continuous spectrum of colours with deep meanings embedded in her. She is red, she is orange, blue, indigo, violet and other days she is none of these; she stays a blue sky!”