From October 28 to November 14, 2023, Omenka Gallery presents The Thread That Binds featuring recent work by leading contemporary artists Wallace Ejoh, Emeka Okoye, Derek Jombo, Olubankole Olabode, Olufemi Oyewole, and Jimmy Nwanne. The exhibition aims to highlight the universal human experience of interconnectedness while exploring the multifaceted concept of connections and the invisible threads that tie us together.
Wallace Ejoh is one of Nigeria's foremost artists well known for a strongly personal style characterised by vivid brush strokes, tonal complexity, and a limited palette. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and art auctions as well as executed several commissions. Ejoh is a member of the Society of Nigeria Artists (SNA).
Chukwuemeka John Okoye's formal training includes a period of study under Dennis Ani. In addition, he earned a B.A in fine art (painting) from the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom. Okoye draws heavily from classical realism. His work is characterised by an ability to render his subjects empathetically to betray their humaneness. He has participated in several art competitions and group shows internationally. In addition, his works are part of significant private collections at home and abroad.
Olubankole Olabode explores diverse media like pastels, graphite, charcoal, pen, coffee, and watercolours. Presently, he has taken to working with oils and acrylics sporadically. His work borders around issues affecting religion, sociopolitical, and humanity in a broader spectrum. He uses his art to interrogate and reinforce often neglected societal inclinations. In an attempt to promote critical thinking and engaging conversation, Olabode infuses elements of humour as well as symbolic references as metaphors to reel in his audience, while addressing issues he finds fascinating or crucial, thereby making his works surreal satirical and edutaining.
Derek Jahyem Jombo-Ogboi draws influences from his birth and childhood in Benin to address issues surrounding identity, ethnicity, and status. His stylistic direction has also been shaped by the classical masters and their approach to the human figure. Painting primarily on canvas, he is similarly adept at graffiti and auditory mediums. In his painting, Jombo-Ogboi exhibits a calm academic realism finely blended with elements of the surreal. Heavily laden with metaphors, his work is distinguishable by its complex layers of interwoven narratives, an exceptional approach to composition, colour, space and light as well as a deftness in capturing his figures with empathy.
Olufemi Oyewole has had a fascination with drawing since childhood, a skill he continues to practice constantly. He graduated with distinction from the Federal College of Education, Technical, Akoka, Lagos in 2006 with a National Certificate in Education (NCE) in painting and then later studied fine and applied arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, graduating in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) in fine arts. He is an active member of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), the International Watercolor Society of Nigeria (IWS NIGERIA), and the Plein Air Society of Nigeria (outdoor landscape painters).
Jimmy Nwanne's works explore life from two dimensions; the incorporeal and the real. The real helps the viewer connect with what is familiar, while the incorporeal is captured through elements of abstraction. This process serves as a pathway to access our true human existence embodied by these two worlds. In making sense of human existence and the human as a being, the artist uses figures and objects or objective reality as characters to reimagine another reality that explores different aspects of our humanity.
Overall, The Thread That Binds aims to highlight the intricate interplay between people, cultures, nature, and technology.
