Riding on its successful exhibitions this year, ODA Art, a contemporary art gallery, is stepping up its offerings with a new art show.
Tagged, Walk like a champion, the show is the first solo exhibition by Abe Odedina, a successful architect and painter.
Walk Like a Champion opened on October 28, 2023 and runs until November 18, 2023 at the gallery, which is located at #10 Sir Samuel Manuwa Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
It features recent works by the artist, A cut above, Just looking, Golden Boy Intercepts the Darts of Malice, Victoria’s Secret, among others,
However, the Golden Boy Intercepts the Darts of Malice is about how you deal with your surroundings. In the face of impending targets – curses, malintents, bad luck – you can stand your ground, and walk like a champion. The only thing hitting you is a golden light, kissing your cheekbones.
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According to the artist, the exhibition is in honour of Rosalind Morolayo Odedina. “It is about the inheritance of grace. It is about being drip-fed the importance of discretion and intention whilst being told you are beautiful. Walk Like a Champion is a homegoing presentation about being true to yourself, gathering the people you care for, and emphasising the ideas you triumph. It is a thank you, a love letter, a celebration,” he said.
Speaking on the reason to see the exhibition, ODA Art explained that the exhibition is about being comfortable with one’s undeniable and ever changing self.
“Abe Odedina was given the tools to walk like this from his Mother, who taught him to never be obstinate or inflexible about ideas, that you always have choice, and you have the freedom to explore.
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“Through his practice, embracing figurative work comfortable with abstract concepts, the artist gives these tactics to us.
“By unapologetically employing acrylic alchemy between different symbols and styles, Odedina births casually fantastic characters that we can see ourselves in,” the gallery said in its exhibition statement.
Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, now living in London (UK) and Salvador Bahia (Brazil), Abe Odedina had a successful architecture career before starting to paint on a trip to Brazil in 2007. Working on board rather than canvas, Odedina’s tableaus embody all the solidity – and practicality – of shop fronts or municipal murals. Compositional elements of Renaissance portraiture, devotional painting and even pop art frame figures from diverse mythologies (Yoruba, Haitian, Ancient Greek) as well as passers-by or characters plucked from the artist’s own imagination. ‘If, like me, you don’t have the discipline or the interest in holding these clear categories,’ says Odedina, ‘then maybe it’s better to enjoy that morphing, from hard facts to poetry, from something to nothing.’
Walk like a champion opens on October 28, 2023 and runs until November 18, 2023 at the gallery.
