The Content: When art shows in a luxury shop

Promoting the sale of artworks outside galleries is set to get a boost with the group exhibition, The Content holding in an upscale departmental store.

HOLDING an exhibition in a luxury item shop is a rarity, but that is what’s going to happen on June 18, when group show, The Content, opens at Adam & Eve departmental store in Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

Featuring some of Nigeria’s most talented artists, it is an exhibition, that promises a unique experience for arts lovers and patrons of the store that has decided to leave its comfort zone by warmly embracing visual art in its 20th year of existence. Besides, the move is aimed at promoting sale of artworks outside galleries.

Leading the pack of artists featuring in the show is a master printmaker and founder of the annual Harmattan Workshop, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State, Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya. There is also a renowned painter and former Deputy Rector of Yaba College of Technology, Dr Kolade Oshinowo, who was recently appointed into the board of the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture.

Painter Lekan Onabanjo, who doubles as the show’s curator, is another of the exhibiting artists, as is his compatriot and ex-Commissioner for Tourism in Ondo State, Tola Wewe.  The Auchi Polytechnic-trained painter, Zinno Orara, who has exhibited globally and Duke Asidere who for over 25 years, has boldly commented on Nigeria’s socio-political landscape using  mediums including pencil, engravings, oil and acrylic, pastel and collage,  are also in the mix. Alex Nwokolo, intrepid painter, is not left out.

But, it is not just an outing of painters alone.  Sculptors Raqib Bashorun and Fidelis Odogwu, are also participating.  While Bashorun, also a teacher at YABATECH, skilfully reproduces found materials (waste) as objects of beauty and utility, Odogwu’s forte is adapting metal to create soft and elegant forms.

Explaining why Adam & Eve is hosting the exhibition, its founder and  managing director,  Mrs Modupe Ogunlesi, disclosed that, “Everything about Adam & Eve is functional art; the criteria for picking the things in Adam & Eve are the beauty and the function. Essentially, you have a quality product that is also an art decor in your house. I thought that on your wall, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have some original pieces. We thought that when you have a nice dining set up, when your guests look up at your wall, they should have nice art pieces.”

Ogunlesi added that, “Most art exhibitions take place on the Island. You rarely have any on the Mainland and we thought yes, let’s bring them [artists] to the Mainland because I know Mainland has something to offer. Our security is better than the Island and whatever we say, in Lagos State; Ikeja is still the seat of government. It’s the capital of Lagos State and when people tell you they don’t want to cross the Island, I’m not sure they quite realise what they are missing. So, I thought this would be an opportunity for them to see what’s actually happening on the Mainland, and at the same time, get the people on the Mainland, as well as the Island to look at art in a different form. So, you have the art on the wall; you must also have functional art on your table; in your space, around you. Life is very stressful; Lagos in particular, with the light, the traffic and those things that just stress you unnecessarily. You need to surround yourself with things of beauty to calm your mind. And this gives them [patrons and viewers] an unusual opportunity to combine the two. It’s an unusual shopping expedition which is what I want people to experience; the ambience which can only be made better by the artists coming.”

She explained that each of the nine artists would occupy a department in the store: “The artists will not be clustered together, there’s a walking gap between one artist and the next; giving you time to absorb what that artist is doing before you see the next one. “

The show, she discloses, will not be a one-off. “It’s going to be a bi-annual event. Ultimately, we would like to have a gallery because we have an upper floor that we can dedicate to a gallery.  We have top artists this time because it’s the first one and I really want to tempt lovers of art to come and see but the next one will have upcoming artists, unknown artists as well as top artists.”

On her expectations, Mrs Ogunlesi said: “In my foreword in the brochure, I quote Davies who says ‘what is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare… a poor life this is, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.’  You need in this stressful environment, to be able to stand still and find things of beauty around you; that will calm your mind. I know that art does that. I’m not an art collector but I do have prints and I know the effect they have on me. So, people will come, they’ll buy, they might not buy but it doesn’t matter, have you enjoyed the experience? So once you have enjoyed the experience, then I’m fine with it.

“I’m a very firm believer in the fact that beauty will save the world. Each time you watch violence, you are actually inoculating yourself against the reality of violence so that when you actually have to stab somebody, it seems like an extension of what you watched on TV. You no longer see the next person as an individual, this is just a game.  But if you can see beauty around you or anywhere, then you know that life here is worth living until God says it’s time to go.”