For Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, the Obi Of Onitsha, to grace an art exhibition and also to flag it off, means that the artist is sought-after globally.
On Friday October 25. 2024, the revered royal father, who is popularly called Agbogidi, was in Lagos and at Alexis Galleries in Victoria Island, to open Luminous Presence:A journey into the heart of light, where art and soul entwine.
It is a solo exhibition by Chidi Kwubiri, a Nigerian Germany trained and based contemporarry visual artist.
The exhibition, which runs from October 25-November 9, 2024, trails the journey of successful career in visual art.
On display are recent and not-too-recent works across paintings and other media by Kwubiri, a master and gifted painter.
Speaking at a media parley heralding the exhibition the gallery recently, Kwubiri narrated the story of how he grew from facing uncertainties in German when he arrived there years ago, without any address and contact person, to becoming the first Nigerian graduate of one of the best art schools in Europe.
Since then, he has grown to use his art to impact society and humanity at large.
“My aim is to implore the viewer to experience the radiant beauty of the human spirit as I try to capture the essence of ‘presence’ – the Spark within, the Glow around, and the Luminescence that connects
us all,” he said in explanation of the current exhibition in Nigeria.
He has even gone ahead to use his work as advocacy, amid many projects aimed at empowering artists at home.
Also, a look at some of his works reveals sheer creativity and being intentional with his style.
For instance, “Come to Life,” one of the paintings, is an abstract reflection on the brutal murder of George Floyd in 2020. He used the work to visualize, document and freeze that short moment in time, when all of life’s aspirations and hope came to a grinding halt.
“Come to Life” reflects the aftermath of George Floyd’s Black Lives Matter movement – where light relentessly seeks to persist in the face of darkness.
In “Circumcision II,” he features a teenage girl with an intent gaze, wearing a razor blade as an earring, with waist beads strapped to her forehead.
The work, an advocacy of sort, is a powerful and metaphorical campaign against female genital mutilation, an issue that Kwubiri has championed through his artwork.
Kwubiri is sad that genital mutilation still happen in some parts of Africa and around the world under the guise of “culture” or “tradition,” leaving victims with the realities and trauma of physical and emotional scar.
Truly, the exhibition is worth seeing, according to Alexis Galleries, because Kwubiri’s stylistic techniques manipulate rhythmic tension of colors, oscillating with dynamic drip and energy.
He fuses and invents a space that accommodates the dance of colors that float in recycling motion of time, revealing figurative gestures that evoke contemplation.
Offering reasons to visit the gallery to see the exhibition, Uche Obasi, curator of the exhibition, noted in his curatorial statement that the absorbing display of gestural beams of pulsating colors and
composition in his paintings, will lure anyone to Chidi Kwubiri’s inner worlds where search for self-illumination and self-discovery interwine; from the illuminating pursuit of reconnection with oneself, to the infinite possibilities that lies therein.
“Luminous Presence – is a visually-stimulating collection that delves into the human experience with the soul of light and color, probing the boundaries between our connectedness to light and color, and our place within it,” the curator said.
According to him, the exhibition is a must-see because kwubiri implores the viewer to experience the magical spark of color, the love and energy, linked with the realities of light in everyday lives and the human spirit as it tries to capture the very essence of living and of presence.
Also, in her gallery statement, Patty Chidiac Mastrogiannis, founder, Alexis Galleries, is also excited to exhibit Kwubiri, who she described as an award-winning interdisciplinary Nigerian artist living and practising in Germany.
“Alexis Gallery is excited to showcase Chidi Kwubiri’s most recent creations and expressive mastery of dynamic pointillism and splashing painting techniques,” she said.
Speaking further she noted that “Luminous Presence” draws viewers in through the luminous flux, energies and atoms that lies presence in our lives, inspiring us to tap into our inner luminescence and revel in the freedom and possibilities open to us with light.
“Chidi Kwubiri’s exhibition explores the intersection of light, color, life, and energy, imploring the viewer to experience the radiant beauty of the human spirit, the Luminescence that connects us and the essence of “presence”. We invite you to immerse yourself in Chidi Kwubiri’s refreshingly striking paintings that open up the hidden aspects of our shared human connection with light and color.
Welcome to “Luminescence Presence”- A Journey into the heart of light, where art and soul intertwines,” Mastrogiannis said.
As in the tradition of the gallery, percent of proceeds from the exhibition will go to The BRICON Foundation, in support patients and their families battling with cancer.
Meanwhile, the exhibition is supported by Coca Cola, The Macallan, Mikano, Art Cafe, Bombay Sapphire, The Guardian, Tiger, UPS, Aina Blankson Global, Hair Thermocool, Nigeria Info, Cobranet, Berol, Aramex and Schweppes.
Once again, the exhibition runs from October 25-November 9, 2024 at Alexis Galleries in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Chidi Kwubiri is a Nigerian visual artist born in umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria, living and working in Germany. He studied Fine Art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the Düsseldorf Art Academy, in 1993, where he was under the tutelage of Michael Buthe and Prof. A. R. Penck, graduating with an MFA in Painting in 2002.
Chidi Kwubiri’s style of painting navigates between the realms of abstract expressionism rendered in ethereal, blurry, yet glorious figures submerged in time, space, and color.
Chidi Kwubiri primarily uses acrylic, allowing his canvas to populate with paint dribbles, where colors jostle and dot in rhythmic motion, a style reminiscent of pointillism. Since 2000, He is widely exhibited throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and USA. Having had numerous international solo and group exhibition across-the-board. His studio is located in WALZWERK, a historic industrial complex now used as a commercial and culture hub in Pulheim near Cologne, Germany.
Chidi Kwubiri is an art ambassador for several international and local organizations and institutions, including the International African Youth Foundation, Bonn, Germany (Adler Award recipient, 2000), MISEREOR Germany (Lenten Veil Artist, 2017/2018), Culturati Lagos (2023), and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (2023).
This ambassadorial role, which he largely represented, has seen him mentor and support early-career artists globally, with a particular commitment to Nigerian artists.
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