Exhibition

Towards Self Making

Dates

18 December 2022 - 15 January 2023

Art Pantheon Gallery is pleased to present Toward Self-Making, an exhibition reflecting on individuals, individual autonomy, self-definition, solitude, introspection, and beauty. The three artists in the exhibition take different approaches toward thinking about the individual and notions of the self. Their paintings serve somewhat to peel back layers to make certain questions apparent—who is a person? And how do people become who they are? What about each of us is irreducible?

In Toju Clarke's work, figures in plain clothes and self-assured postures are centered in the canvas. The colours are clear and bright but not flashy, not overtly vivid. The backgrounds are also clear, filled largely with one colour. The centrality and assuredness of the figures and of the artist, are the point.

Abisola Gbadamosi paints the feminine form with whorls and bewitching colours. Flowers, fairy dust, beautiful lines and lustrous hues are the hallmarks of her canvas. For Gbadamosi, the individual—the woman—is a being of enchantment. The world they occupy and make is one of beauty, and because it is beautiful it is powerful.

Solitude, quiet, self-education are important to David Olatoye. His figures are reading, are reclining, are seemingly at peace. The colours have the calm, soothing tones of mild sunlight at midday. The figures are sophisticated and aspirational as can be seen in the title of books they're reading. One has the name of the popular African American actress: "Viola Davis". The other is The Love Songs of W. E. B. du Bois. They are people in whom, perhaps, we see aspects of ourselves. Or perhaps, they are people we would like to be. Toward Self-Making reminds us that it is impossible to fully see ourselves and others. The artists are aiding us, in their own way, to look again.

Featured Artists

Toju Clarke

Toju Clarke is a visual artist living and working in Lagos. He studied graphic design at the Yaba College of Technology. He makes graphic art and sgraffito paintings, a technique of painting that involves scratching on canvas.

His works, often large paintings of human busts, examine moods and mental states. Their power lies in how they keep us ruminating on states of mind that we otherwise may not want to ponder on. Joy, anguish, masculinity, and intensity are deftly portrayed. The focus on the human face and bust in his paintings create a hallowed space for human presence and expression.

Abisola Gbadamosi

Ever since she was three years old, she was always up to no good - drawing on every visible surface of her house, be it walls or tables, you could tell she was there. Her turning point happened when she was around six. She walked into a toy store with her mother and fell in love with some Barbie dolls. She remembered being so hurt that they could not afford one at the time, so much so that her mother had the brilliant idea to draw them out, cut them up, and use their imaginations to escape the harsh realities of life. At that moment, she felt true euphoria. In 2008, her mother passed away and she lost everything – her heart, her drive, and her will to live. Her art teacher at the time took it upon himself to teach her how to channel those emotions through art. She later lost her dad in 2013. He was an architect who loved her unconditionally. Shortly after that, she was officially diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety with mild OCD tendencies. After her first group exhibition in London, she moved back to Nigeria and made an active decision to follow her second love, teaching. By doing so, she finally understood the quote by Pablo Picasso, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up." Then it clicked. She wanted to create art that people could relate to, art that could inspire, and art that would make people feel that same euphoria she felt when she was a little girl.

David Olatoye

Nigerian-based contemporary artist, David Olatoye, 27, creates hyper-stylized portraits with a digitized and ultra-modern edge in his chosen media of acrylic and pen.

A visual creative with a penchant for the written word, Olatoye's star has risen sharply since he launched his career in Lagos in 2015, after finishing his Bachelor of Fine Art degree at the highly regarded Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, Nigeria. A highly collectable contemporary artist, Olatoye's work explores the concepts of reconstructed and idealized domestic scenes through a critical lens that examines his own somewhat sweet/ugly childhood experiences and the expectations of life in a traditional Nigerian home and society.

Olatoye being a positive and lovely soul, creates a bond between subject and environment emulating a filial piety and forging an emotional attachment between his subjects, himself, and the home life he dreams of. It is inevitable that his lens on domesticity extends to the potency of women – an autobiographical stance given the status of female family figures that exists in his culture and his own upbringing.

Some of David's previous exhibitions include:

2022

- ART MIAMI, Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, GR Gallery, New York.

- 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Paris, African Arty Gallery, Paris.

- 1-54 London, Kanbi Projects, Sommerset House, Strand, London.

- ART X, Kanbi Projects, Federal palace, Victoria island, Lagos, Nigeria.

2021

- Ronchini Gallery, 22 Dering Street, London, United Kingdom.

2020

- Pacers Gallery Lagos Nigeria. - RELE Young Contemporary, Lagos Nigeria.