Art Exhibition Opening I CHUKWUDINMA!

Art Exhibition Opening I CHUKWUDINMA!

Chukwudinma Nsofor paints boldly, brushing fast moving shapes and intense color changes of human energy. You can almost see the traces of his hand lifting from the pigment. He calls the large-scale oils documentary narratives, abstract canvases commanding longer looks that simply become immersive. And he has plenty on his mind.
A Nigerian crown prince from the southeastern Oguta region where lakes meet rivers and the Igbo people have been known for Uli geometric and linear iconography since the Ninth Century, Chukwudinma migrated thousands of miles away to Virginia’s waterfront. His computer screen rolls images of a communal village life back home, where “most everyone is related and sharing is the norm.”

His reference point is his native Nigeria, Africa’s most populated nation where hundreds of ethnic groups have long existed, often uneasily. Devastated and divided by colonialism, in 1960 newly independent Nigeria established an unsteady democracy with self-dealing leaders who manipulate the vote and use the power of their office for personal gain. In his series, “Ballot Boxes and Beasts of Burden” Chukwudinma examines citizen agency as fledgling democracy disappears into ironclad control.” It’s an inescapable comparison to today’s United States.

In transit himself, Chukwudinma watches people move, individually and en masse, willingly or forced, divining with their places, their paths, their intersections with his brush. His “Citizens of Nowhere” series is about “strangers, of foreigners, of the nostalgia of missing home, and creating a new life…” he explains. The powerfully juxtaposed orange and blue outlines of “Runners” signal their energy. As with all of his work, the painter puts a premium on negative space, a void that is essential in Uli iconographic body art, murals and fabrics.
Converting formative years learning and practicing Igbo rituals – vibrant visuals, audibles and dance – into current concepts is “an awkward experience,” he concedes. “Being Nigerian, I move under the shadow of an uncomfortable stereotype,” referring to any number of generalizations. But discomfort feeds his artistic drive to go beyond challenges: “The titles and themes of my paintings are indicators, advocates of other, better ways of living and being.” He prods us to examine the canvas, the paper, and see it for ourselves, to learn, to research, to question.

In his Igbo language, Chukwudinma means “God is Good,” it’s an ancestral name he chooses to carry because of its broad, almost universal appeal.

“I know that there is a lot of work to be done,” the artist says. “I live for the ways I will rediscover my culture [and] build a community of people that will be self-sufficient, embracing their heritage, and familiar with other cultures…”

A University of Nigeria, Nsukka art department graduate whose mentors were luminaries of the iconic Uli practice, Chukwudinma landed in Lagos where he wrote for the Comet Newspaper, taught art, and managed the African Foundation for the Arts in Lagos. Importantly, he painted, distinguishing himself as a leading contemporary African artist, showing in New York and Abidjan galleries, at ArtX Lagos, the New York Art Fair, the Dak’ Art Biennale, Senegal, and beyond.

This is his first solo exhibition in the US.

Host or Publisher Amy Kaslow Gallery