*Lead photo: the curator, Ekundayo at the venue
FIFTEEN young artists featuring in the exhibition, A Roomful of Stories, will be formally presented to collectors, arts writers and select members of the public tomorrow, Friday, September 10 and Saturday, 11th.
Kennii Ekundayo, curator of the show – marking the birth of Kokopelii Gallerii Lekki Lagos – says the preview is designed to afford invited guests “the chance to see the exhibition before it debuts to the public in Lagos on Sunday 12th September 2021.”
“A Roomful of Stories will open formally on September 12 and run through October 16 at the Kokopelli Gallery on Remi Olowude Street, Lekki Phase 1 Lagos,” stated Ekundayo, the head curator of Galeri ODUMIJE, in a statement yesterday.
She adds that the exhibition is the vision of the gallery’s founder/director, artist Dare Herald, “whose primary goal in the establishment of the gallery is to reflect the ‘intangible essence of storytelling.”
“Every artwork mounted within The Kokopelli Gallery walls shall be imbued with narrative elements enough to encourage the creative imagination of the onlooker,” stated Herald, the founder/CEO of Gallery Kokopelli NG, an organisation that specialises in Arts and Aesthetics, and to which the hosting gallery is a subsidiary.
The assembled exhibits, said the Curator, Ekundayo, are “recounts that revolve around evocative subjects such as the lot of child brides as seen in the Betrothal series by Aluko and Oladimeji’s portrait of the forgotten seen in Ashabi, her sole memento of a deceased ally; Omodamwen’s Ovbialeke, Salako’s Dambe series and Savage’s Hall of Masks chronicle the artists’ keen like mindedness to valorise their native heritage while Adepoju in his piece, For How Long? satirises the political gambits that have derided the education sector of the country through his reflection on the plight of the schoolgirl, Oreoluwa.”
Continued the curator, “It goes to show that even when the artist is not actively sharing stories steeply associated with her/his person or experiences, s/he still serves as a conduit through which the story of another is shared.
“Visitors to the exhibition will find themselves mostly hypnotised by the rhythmic, colourful patterns of mask-like motifs represented in various colour schemes in the Faces and Phases series by Onyeka; or trying to decipher the third-person narrative form of Ogunwo whose works share a common identifier — thickly layered vibrant paint strokes.”
The curator, said further, “The world has not necessarily viewed the visual arts as an independent form of storytelling — as seen in the case of oral, written and digital mediums — only alluding to it within its illustrative capacity. A Roomful of Stories strongly acknowledges and posits visual arts as an age-long and independent medium of storytelling seeing its use of elements and techniques commonly applied in the other forms.”
Ekundayo disclosed that the exhibition opening will be preceded by a two-day exclusive private viewing for the gallery’s patrons with a canapé event hosted by the renowned Chef Fregz.
ABOUT THE CURATOR:
Kehinde “Kennii” Ekundayo is an independent art curator based in Lagos, Nigeria. Specific about modern and contemporary African art, she has curated exhibitions around the country and internationally. Her professional practice began in March 2017 with a group exhibition of amateur photographers, and has grown to curating key projects involving the likes of revered legendary artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, in various media ranging from drawings and paintings, to film and photographs, to texts and installations amongst other art forms.
She is affiliated with the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), a Nigerian not-for-profit platform for artists, art critics and aficionados, and culture advocates as the Communications Officer. She is also a part of the organising team of the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF, a yearly prime literacy and youth empowerment project that recently concluded its 22nd edition. Ekundayo is head curator at Galerii ODUMIJE, a research and curatorial outfit that operates out of Lagos, Nigeria.
ABOUT THE GALLERY:
The Kokopelli Gallery was established in 2020 as a subsidiary of Kokopelli NG, an art hub that specialises in Arts and Aesthetics with parts in interior design services and a craft store. Founded by artist, Dare Herald, the gallery has been designed to focus on presenting a new approach to contemporary art and exhibitions by conveying its position as a centre for storytelling through visual arts. The gallery is located within a multi-room storey-building thus offering an expansive facility for visual arts display and other cultural-themed programs.
