Sam Ovraiti is no longer Waiting for Tomorrow

The most-anticipated exhibition of the year 2022 is here, and it is coming at the right time; to end the year on a good and creative note.

Yes, from December 10-24, 2022, an enthralling art showcase opens at Alexis Galleries in Victoria Island, Lagos to wow art lovers, collectors and the public in a festive show that will surpass every art exhibition you have witnessed since the beginning of the year.

Tagged, Waiting for Tomorrow, it is a solo exhibition featuring over 24 creatively appealing works.

Of course, the most important reason to see the works is because of the creative hands that made them. They are works spanning up to 15 years and from the creative juices of Sam Ovraiti, a Nigerian art master, notable for being the most expressive watercolourist in Nigeria and West Africa.

Also, Waiting for tomorrow is the first solo outing of the artist after his retrospective exhibition at Alexis Galleries in 2019.

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In the exhibition, the multidisciplinary artist, whose career experience span academia, study practice and art mentorship, is further expressing himself in different media with works being presented across oil on canvas, watercolor on watercolor paper, charcoal on hammer paper and pastel on pastel paper.

Works such as Coming Together, Looking for Togetherness, Calabar Dancer, among other speak volumes on Ovraiti’s oil on canvas prowess, Peace of Life and Untilled takes you to his watercolor pieces, while Simple Rest, Studies and Models reflect Ovraiti’s proficiency in charcoal and pastel respectively.

Another reason is the fact that the exhibition features three curators; Mathew Oyedele, Ideh Eyimofe, and Ike Sandra. Well, considering the incredible creative ingenuity of Ovraiti, the many students he had mentored in and out of the classroom, he deserves threesome curators.

Explaining the rationale for the exhibition title, Ovraiti, who spoke with art editors at his Ojodu, Lagos home, was grateful to God for giving him life and also noted that many are waiting for their tomorrow to come without knowing that they are already in their tomorrow.

Explaining further, he noted that what one puts in his/her cup is what will spill tomorrow; hence it is when humans are shaken by life that the masterpieces of yesterday can be shown.

He further cited Chinua Achebe’s ever-green novel Things Fall Apart as a case study for Waiting for Tomorrow. According to him, while Achebe was hoping to write better novels, Things Fall Apart, which he wrote in 1958 still surpassed all his other creative works, meaning that Achebe had his tomorrow yesterday.

“We expected some new works to be added to this collection without knowing that you can only spill from your cup what you have already created. We had to go through the archives to look for masterpieces to be exhibited. Today is the tomorrow we were looking at yesterday”, the artist said.

Where is tomorrow? Ovraiti asked and answered saying, “A representative of the next 24hrs will come soon. Yes. When I planned this exhibition at Alexis Galleries, I was waiting for tomorrow with such promises that I will create new works with new revelation and new results but now I know that tomorrow is already my yesterday and today.

“All the works created and exhibited here were created yesterday waiting for tomorrow. Although I am better now, no new work was added to this collection in five months. Today is the time you create the tomorrow you are imagining. In fact you ended tomorrow yesterday and today is all you have left”.

However, he thanked Patty Chidiac Mastrogiannis, founder and CEO, Alexis Galleries, for encouraging him to go solo the second time and further creating the space to show his works, especially this yuletide season.

For the curators, it is a delight to partake in Ovraiti’s exhibition as the artist is one of the best contemporary artists to have tested the limit and boundaries of colour, over the years.

Speaking on behalf of the curators at Ovraiti’s home, Mathew Oyedele, noted that the exhibition is a must-see for many reasons.

He sees some of the best works being presented at the exhibition considering that works from 1994 to 2022 are presented as epiphanies into the significance of appreciating time and living in the moment.

“His personal experience has made him realize that the tomorrow he was waiting for had already happened and the works that would give him values had already been created. The works that were therefore once abandoned were swiftly completed and thus became a thing of yesterday,” the curators said in their joint statement for the exhibition.

For those who are still contemplating whether or not to see the exhibition this festive season, the curators offered other reasons saying, “In this momentous realization, his colour orchestration, good draughtsmanship and boldness to expand his range of materials remain evident.

“His heavily-layered impasto where he allows the nature of the medium to influence his style, his stylised forms, his subtle and contemplative watercolours as well pastel works are rendered with infinite dedication to the complexities of colour.”

In her remarks for the exhibition, Patty Chidiac Mastrogiannis, noted that Alexis Galleries is pleased to present this solo exhibition because of the works that are imbued with a philosophical outlook that is influenced by Ovraiti’s personal experiences.

According to the gallery owner and art promoter, the exhibition is worth seeing because Ovraiti is a name that does not need much introduction as his relentless experimentation and exploration with materials keep on showing his works in new ways that require new curiosity to fathom.

“Waiting for Tomorrow is an exhibition of works that have grown, appreciated and increased in value over time and we hope you see the importance of seizing and living in the moment from this exhibition,” she concluded.

In the tradition of the gallery donating part of the exhibition proceeds to charity, Loving Gaze, an independent not-for-profit organization that serves unprivileged communities in Nigeria, will be the beneficiary.

Most importantly, Alexis Galleries appreciate sponsors of the exhibition, which include; Pepsi, Tiger, Indomie, Mikano, The Guardian, AMG Logistics, Haier Thermocool, UPS, Aina Blankson, Cobranet, Art Cafe, Wazobia, Nigerian Info FM and Rentokil Boecker.

Born in 1961 and currently working in Lagos, Nigeria, Ovraiti holds a Higher National Diploma and a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from Auchi Polytechnic and the University of Benin, respectively. He lectured at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, between 1985 to 1993, where he trained and tutored a number of artists, who have become household names in the contemporary Nigerian art world. He began exploring pastel as a medium in 1987 in a bid to introduce it to the art community as a formidable medium. For the next four years, he used the medium constantly and made portraits of different people in the process. By 1991, he stopped making portraits in pastel and moved into abstract watercolors.