Rele Gallery takes on Nigeria, global art scenes with bigger space

April 30, 2022 will forever remain memorable for Rele Gallery, its friends, patrons and lovers of the arts generally.

That day, Rele, a dynamic contemporary art gallery, rolled out rhythmic drums, in colour and style to open its new gallery space at #32D Thompson Avenue Ikoyi. The high networth residents of the affluent neighborhood, also felt the vibes.

The story is a good one to tell. About seven years ago, Rele Gallery berthed in the Nigerian visual art landscape with a difference. Then, Adenrele Sonariwo, the founder, had to make do with a space on Military Street, Onikan, Lagos, which is in the neighborhood of the city’s art, culture and entertainment hub, alongside the nearby Lagos branch of the National Museum.

Today and seven years after, Rele has really gone global, hence the need to move to a more befitting new gallery space in Ikoyi.

Of course and as expected, the new space in Ikoyi is reflective of the gallery’s growth. For Adenrele, the new space is also a reflection of Rele’s stronger commitment to its community in Nigeria, as it continues to fulfill its mission to trigger more audiences into appreciating, engaging and collecting art from Africa.

Also, considering its huge space and world class facilities, in the new space, art lovers will have richer experiences with multiple exhibitions and programming happening at the same time.

But while many considered the Onikan space as an iconic address, the new space will offer artists ample space and facilities to enable them to fully express their ideas. And if you consider the gallery as a display centre, #32D Thomson Avenue Ikoyi, Lagos, is truly a display and showcase centre for Nigerian arts to the world.

“This move is reflective of our growth. We also wanted a much bigger space; you have been to Onikan, a smaller space, but here is a bit bigger and our artists have an opportunity to explore a bigger space and it really helps the depth of their work, as well to see how they can respond to this space.

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“Also growing, we were at Onikan for seven years and we love Onikan, which for us is the cultural capital of Lagos. We enjoyed being there; it is just that we wanted something a lot bigger and reflective of the direction we are going”, Adenrele said.

The new space is also opening its doors to the public in a unique way by presenting its inaugural exhibition titled ‘Subtle Textures’.

The group exhibition features works by budding artists including; Osi Audu, Annick Kamgang, Sedireng Mothibatsela, Kelani Abass, Papa Omotayo and Temitayo Ogunbiyi.

It explores the generative qualities of drawing and line in creating composite forms and spheres of knowledge. As the gallery moves into a new space, a blank canvas for the playing out of future possibilities, the fluidity of drawing and its capacity for transformation forms an essential starting point.

Here, line becomes a promise, one of vast potentiality reproducing endless possibilities in space.

Speaking on the exhibition, which runs from May 1, 2022 until five weeks, Adeoluwa Oluwajoba, curator, Rele Gallery, said, ‘Subtle Textures’, is an engagement with drawing from different perspectives of the different artists we are showing and that the gallery chose drawing for the opening exhibition because it is like going to the basis or the fundamentals, pointing to the larger world and larger realities.

“We are showing six artists with between five to nine works per artist and the works are all drawings done in different media from smoke, charcoal, pencil, graphite and others”, he said.

On the rationale for an all-drawing exhibition, he explained that, “Since the gallery is moving into a new space and engaging new realities, it just felt like thinking about the generative quality of drawing, its role as the beginning sketch for other works and a completed work itself.”