ALL ROADS LED HERE

It is quite rare for me to paint a self-portrait. I am far less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in capturing the essence of others. If anyone wants to know a thing about me or my heritage, they ought to take a very close look at my paintings. My culture and heritage provide me with a strong and unique language to express myself. The naming of each piece is deliberate and gives a deeper meaning to my works that only my native tongue can capture.

My subjects in ebube dike and achalla ugo casually observe the observer, as they are themselves, being observed. They are in an ever-familiar setting, obodo oyibo, the foreign land. This interaction, in a familiar setting, is an occurrence that resonates all too well. My subject in afu-ekuu has just left her home, ka’anyi puta n’ogbo and onye-ije, nno are en route to a new destination. They are a reflection of my mental space at the time of their creation. My subjects represented a liberation that I wished to know. Fools Rush, as she is referred to, and Beer for Progress represent the casual bystanders in the spectacle that was my life during a period of instability; present but disengaged.

adaugo, adiba and adaeze are manifestations of where I want to be; a daughter of the people - using my story to uplift others, a daughter of wealth – ensuring survival for myself and my son and a daughter of a king – an inherence.

The works on show all culminate in mmili malu ugo wulu ugo aaru | The Rain That Bathed The Eagle. This is an Igbo proverb which translates to the insight that unfortunate events can turn into blessings in disguise. My subject is finally in her rightful home, at peace within herself and in her surroundings. She is living her life on her terms as presented by the bottles on champagne in her fridge, her favourite condiments on the shelves and of course, full freedom of self-expression in pink. All roads have indeed led here and it is a happy place.

CURATED BY MATTHEW WELDON SHOWMAN

PINK PARTY

The Igbo tribe, to which I belong, hail from the south-east region of Nigeria. The ancient value system and custom of the Igbo people and their fierce independence is evidenced in the themes I unpack in my portraits, seen through a contemporary lens.

Essential themes such as the importance of coming of age, engagement, marriage and playing one’s part in their community and Igbo society at large are fundamental to me, and seamlessly blend the old with the modern; adapted, but never compromised to suit the times.

With Pink Party, I depict a shift in attitudes of younger generations towards ancient rites such as courtship and pre-marital consummation. Igbo people are notorious for their conservative approach to courtship before marriage. Traditional Igbo families want to avoid their family name coming into disrepute and as a result, young men and women dating openly without any family commitment is often frowned upon. Families seek to protect their women by advising against associating her name with a young man before the certainty of a marriage is confirmed.

our main character, nwabundo, meets a man at her birthday party who remains unnamed, and they quickly become enamoured with one another. They become intimately acquainted but his empty words come to no avail and nwabundo is left without commitment. In yesteryear, such a scenario would have been nigh impossible but increasingly, such situations have become the norm, demonstrating a shift to a new way of life for younger generations.

With Pink Party, I also touch on homosexual relationships. nwabundo’s birthday party guests include her gay friend, kaito, who is in attendance with his lover, dubem. Traditionally, this would never have been allowed. Homosexuality remains illegal in Nigeria and is a punishable “crime” with a sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment. The marginalisation of this community is abhorrent and calls for change.

In pre-colonial Igboland, women who were considered exceptional in the eyes of society due to their wealth and/or social standing, and those who were past menopause could marry wives for themselves, for their husbands, for their sons, and/or for their siblings. Such women were known as “Female Husbands”.

These influential women were usually viewed as men, due to the fluidity of gender in the pre-colonial Igbo context, by marrying women their status was elevated mostly due to female husbands paying bride-price. Among her female mates, she was regarded as a man and first among equals, okenwanyi.

Although female husband unions were not sexual in nature, the practice gave women more sexual freedom because it freed them to have multiple and anonymous male partners. However, with the ratification of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) in 2013, such customs have been done away with.

Pink Party, whilst appearing fun and light-hearted on the surface, invites an introspection into the injustice of the marginalisation of others and also asks for an accommodation of change, whether in attitudes or beliefs or customs, as this is ultimately inevitable with the passage of time.

BAND OF VICES GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, USA | 21 SEPTEMBER - 08 OCTOBER MAY 2022

CURATED BY TERRELL TILFORD

LADIES OF LEISURE

Ladies of Leisure features nine figurative paintings by two exciting young artists whose works invite interpretations of the female experience as it relates to culture, societal expectations, and self-exploration. 

For her works in the show, Nigerian artist REWA offers a sampling of her latest series, Renascenting Africa, which portrays the modern African woman as “fashionable, intrepid, and unbothered by the external gaze,” according to the artist. REWA states, “The paintings that comprise this series, Renascenting Africa, are for us, by us and starring us.”

Staying true to her signature style, the portraiture is done in a technique redolent of stained-glass that depicts her subjects’ skin tones in a variety of colors, from various shades of cream and brown, to more vibrant blues and purples. This method was also partly influenced by the artist’s anatomy studies while getting her degree in Physiology & Pharmacology.  

While the portraits have a sense of light-hearted solitude on the surface, they hold significant meaning for the artist related to the particular subjects she paints. REWA draws parallels to her own Igbo culture and uses stories of the individuals to connect the rich history of Nigerian culture with the modern Afropolitan woman.

In the sister works Please Be Quiet and Call Me, REWA combines modern scenarios with traditional culture. The paintings tell the story of Nwabundo, a modern woman in the thick of the dating scene. In Please, Be Quiet, Nwabundo has grown bored on the phone with her current love interest. Unlike traditional Igbo courting where a relationship has more external influence and is more firmly bound, the sitter’s relationship is self-determined, and thus she will hang up the phone soon. In juxtaposition, Call Me depicts Nwabundo on the receiving end of unrequited love. While in traditional courtship, she could possibly speak with her lover’s family. Here, she must see how their relationship unfolds. 

DEBUCK GALLERY, NEW YORK, USA | 05 MAY - 28 MAY 2022

CURATED BY DAVID DEBUCK

C11H17NO3: MESCALINE

a visual elixir for the senses featuring the most groundbreaking artist of their generation. The exhibition was curated by Founder Terrell Tilford himself, in which the chemical compound is infused. Band of Vices has also tapped into today's contemporary zeitgeist, one which offers a hallucinogenic monumental group of artists who share, both in concept & size, works of colorful hybrid vitality.

BAND OF VICES GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, USA | 18 SEPTEMBER - 30 OCTOBER 2021

CURATED BY TERRELL TILFORD

i’je awel’le: A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY, A SAFE JOURNEY

In this series, i’je awel’le: A Beautiful Journey, A Safe Journey, we see my recurring characters, as well as some new ones, undertake further voyage into the foreign land. Some of them have journeyed into love, as we see with ofu obi, love nwantinti and anyi bu ofu. Others such as efizzy, dubem, Somto in pink jeans and asusu anya have journeyed into modern self-pride, shaking off traditional expectations – there is a flourish of personality juxtaposed with some sensibility in their fashion. They convey a certain sense in their pose, the “uche”, the intangible thing that elevates the work for that moment in time in which it exists, the moment decisif.

JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY, NEW ORLEANS, USA | 03 JUNE - 17 JULY 2021

CURATED BY MATTHEW WELDON SHOWMAN

DEUS EX FEMINA

a group exhibition showcasing eight female artists from the african continent. working with different mediums and styles, the artists explore and express their diversity, conveying their stories, emphasizing their experiences and inspiration behind the works.

akka projects, dubai, uae | 15 march - 10 april 2021

CURATED BY Lidija Khachatourian

ADDICTED TO AFRICA

In the context of the International Women's Rights Day on March 8, Out of Africa Gallery highlights 3 female artists passionated by the African continent: Marion Boehm, Olivia Mae Pendergast and REWA.

ARTSY.NET + OUT OF AFRICA GALLERY | 01 MARCH - 28 MARCH 2021

CURATED BY SORELLA ACOSTA

TRUTH ABOUT ME

A vibrant homage to the curiosity, mystique, trauma and humility of humankind, through the perspective of 19 female-identifying and non-binary artists.

URBAN ZEN GALLERY, 705 Greenwich Street, New York City, USA | 09 MARCH - 09 APRIL 2021

CURATED BY MASHONDA TIFRERE

THE SHAPE OF THE NEW

A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION EXPLORING ARTISTIC RESPONSES TO GLOBAL ISSUES AND THE POWER OF REINVENTION. hosted by Kroll IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Hauser & Wirth, HMRC, Demif Gallery, and The Society of London Art Dealers. Presented by Gareth Fletcher of Sotheby’s Institute of Art,

DUFF + PHELPS (KROLL) | 12 MARCH 2021

CURATED BY SUKAI ECCLESTON

EMANCIPATION

Duo show with Nigerian artist, Oluwole Omofemi.

OUT OF AFRICA GALLERY, BARCELONA, SPAIN | 06 FEBRUARY - 14 MARCH 2021

CURATED BY RAPHAEL DAPAAH

IN THE MIDST OF ALL THAT IS

The title of the exhibition suggests a direct conversation with our current global challenges in regard to the Covid-19 pandemic and other social, political and economic ills. Both artists insist on searching for the silver-lining in these fraught times, mainly through the use of vibrant color palettes that are invoked through their real and imagined cityscapes and dreamscapes. These artists imbue their paintings with the hope that this uncertain future that we are living through will bring kinder days ahead for humankind.

band of vices gallery, los angeles, USA | 23 January - 27 February 2021

CURATED BY TERRELL TILFORD

INSPIRATION IN ISOLATION

Works From Canceled And Postponed Exhibitions + Works Made In Quarantine

Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, USA | 04 November - 19 december 2020

CURATED BY MATTHEW WELDON SHOWMAN

KWETU: A CELEBRATION OF BLACK ART

Kwetu means 'our' in Swahili. A language from the Bantu people spoken across Eastern and Central Africa. This virtual exhibition celebrates the beautifully rich and powerfully versatile art from people of African and Caribbean heritage, from London and the Diaspora. Selected artists include Manzi Jackson, Patrick Dougher, REWA, Tejumola Butler Adenuga, Ufuoma Isiavwe and Vanessa Endeley.

LONDON.GOV.UK | September 2020

CURATED BY EVE MAKENA

ART BUBAI ART FAIR 2020

RELE GALLERY | 2020

ReLe Gallery Young Contemporaries Alumni Exhibition

Nigerian National Musuem | 19 January - 02 February 2020

CURATED BY ADERENLE SONARIWO

IDENTITY MEASURES

At a time of heightened division both at home and abroad, imagining a world of shared experience and solidarity between ideologically opposed groups seems like the stuff of dreamwork. Difference, and what to do with it, remains the most significant question of our era and forces a consideration of the role that identity—or, the representation of the individual “self” through personal idiosyncrasies, language, actions, beliefs, appearance, experiences, and forms of social belonging and/or oppression—plays in grappling with heterogeneity in the sociopolitical sphere.

CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER OF NEW ORLEANS (CACNO) | 03 AUGUST - 05 OCTOBER 2019

CURATED BY DR JORDAN AMIRKHANI

nwa agbo: ENTERING ADOLESCENCE

In Igboland, there is a seasonality of women’s power and authority, specific phases during a woman’s lifespan can be identified in which female power is either immaterial or elevated. Thus, an Igbo woman’s life can be said to be divided into the following four seasons: the Nwata (childhood) season, the Nwa Agbo (adolescence) season, the Okenye (adult) season and finally, the Agadi (autumnal) season. Traditionally, it is only when a woman enters the Agadi season that she becomes an elder or is given the revered title of “honorary man” and she receives all the rights and reputations that are accorded to that station.  
In focusing on the Nwa Agbo: Entering Adolescence season, the vivid and commanding representations of these young women, on both the allusive and interpretative planes, merit equal attention, since both aim to overturn the misogynistic placement of woman in the patriarchal Igbo culture. The women of Nwa Agbo: Entering Adolescence do not need the title of “honorary man” to be seen or heard. They are formidable in their various manifestations of EKE, the sacred python of Igboland, as EZE NWANYI, queen of all women, as JI, the yam tuber, the celebrated king of all crops in Igboland.  

JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY, NEW ORLEANS, USA | 17 APRIL - 23 MAY 2019

STILL HERE TOMORROW TO HIGH FIVE YOU YESTERDAY

THIS exhibition explores the different ways in which artists, performers, writers and architects tackle the complexities inherent within the dual concepts of Utopia and progress. Exploring emergent spaces that exist both in the realm of the mind and in the physical unknown, the exhibition points critically to the mirages, metaphors, stereotypes and matrixes of progress.

Through the works of contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora, the exhibition engages with the phenomenon of travel and migration through imagined, alternative realities that reference both fixed and immaterial locations.

ZEITZ MOCAA, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA | JULY - 22 SEPTEMBER 2019

CURATED BY AZU NWABOGU

inu nwunye: BRIDE PRICE

INU NWUNYE will showcase a female child’s passage from INYO-UNO – the knocking / introduction ceremony which hearlds a bethrothal, IBUNABAITE – the bride’s primary visit to her fiancé’s home, URI – eight days spent with the bridegroom’s family where she is assessed as a worthy potential housewife, IJE ILO – familiarization with the bridegroom’s family, INA UNO – leaving her ancestral home, through to IGO MUO and INU-MMANYA – the marriage and (palm) wine-carrying ceremony.

Many of these traditions, mainly the IBUNABAITE and URI aspects, have since died out. As the old adage says – old order changeth yielding place to the new. Cultural customs faded to the pervasive western systems but some lingering elements of yesteryear still constitute a solid foundation upon which the marriage rites are operated today. Current western practices of marriage in Igboland are a superstructure imposed on the underpinnings of indigenous bethrothal and engagement practices.

JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY, NEW ORLEANS, USA | 30 AUGUST - 28 SEPTEMBER 2018

HER STORY: SISTERHOOD THAT TRANSCENDS

The exhibition explores female identity. Women play many roles in our complex world - mother, sister, daughter, friend, lover - but there is a connection that all women share which binds them together. Through "Her Story", the current exhibition seeks to celebrate and uplift womanhood. Indeed, all women play a part in a "Sisterhood that Transcends."

Gallery of African Art (GAFRA), London, UK | 22 September - 21 October 2017

CURATED BY CAROLINE BENDU COOPER

MOCADA ANNUAL GALA

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), New York, USA | 2017

CURATED BY JOAQUIN VON DITMAR

RELE GALLERY YOUNG CONTEMPORARIES SHOW

ReLe Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria | 15 January - 12 February 2017

CURATED BY ADERENLE SONARIWO