Upon the advice of "Time Out Magazine- Lagos Edition," we took Sunday afternoon to make the long trek from our apartment in Agege to the Nike Art Gallery (pronounced "nee-kay") on the Lekki Peninsula on Victoria Island. It was well worth the trip.
When we first arrived, I was surprised by the sheer size of the gallery: 5 floors of wall to wall paintings. In fact "wall to wall" is an understatement as there were so many paintings that some of them were arranged on the floor for lack of space. On the 5th floor, I discovered there were literally rooms filled with paintings just waiting for a chance to go on display. Unlike most galleries I've been to, the paintings in the Nike Art Gallery weren't limited to one genre. In fact, different genres, colors, subjects, and styles were hanging right next to each other which is certainly reflective of what it feels like to live in Lagos: everyone and everything piled on top of one another. Although this sounds jarring, I actually thought it to be very inspired. I could spend hours wandering around, taking it all in - and on Sunday afternoon, I did.
The design of the gallery is light and airy with several large windows letting in the beautiful sunshine which seemed to allow the paintings a chance to be seen in their natural, original setting. I absolutely fell in love with the place.
As luck would have it, the first group of paintings were saw were the collected works of the artist of the week and, as the artist of the week, Emmanuel just happened to be on hand to explain his paintings. Emmanuel's work surprised me and I was impressed with his creative re-creations of what might be considered "typical"African scenes and settings. He's a big fan of using the "mixed media" style of painting which, for the non-artsy types, means that he uses materials besides just "paint" to make his paintings come alive. As he explained, he feels as though the textures in his paintings help the viewer understand the intended feeling and perspective behind the scene.
For example, in one of his paintings, he had put a painting canvas on a woven grass mat which was, in turn, placed on top of a wooden crate. On the canvas he painted a picture of a young girl studying on her bed by candlelight but intentionally left the edges of the mat and wooden crate physically poking out of the edge of the painting. This, he explained, is to allow the viewer a deeper understanding, a better perspective of how uncomfortable the bed was for the girl. I was very impressed by his work and I can't remember seeing another artist who has used the same technique. Unfortunately, like most art, it is difficult to capture the genius on film... Still, I did ask Emmanuel if I could take one picture of one of his paintings just to attempt to show others his creative style:
Since an ordinary viewer probably can't discern paint from object, I'll enlighten you. In the above picture, the straw hat on the fisherman's head is actually a straw hat not just a really good painting of a straw hat. Similarly, the rope over the fisherman's shoulder is real rope and the wooden oar to the side of the painting is a real oar (although its probably easier to make out since it's sticking out of the edge of the painting).
Like I said, its difficult to capture this kind of genius on film.
My favorite of Emmanuel's paintings was, undoubtedly, of a fisherman's boat from the perspective of a fisherman looking out towards the horizon. In a fantastic stroke of artistic genius, he had hollowed out the hull of the boat and had stuck another, smaller canvas behind the larger painting to give the boat a feeling of depth and reality. He even explained that he had gone so far as to make the hollowed-out hull the exact depth of a real hull in a real fishing boat. He had then taken another woven grass mat and sewn it into the top of the painting to give the impression of a shade hanger over the top of the boat. I would have never thought to do that.
Of course, with 5 floors of paintings to see, I didn't get a chance to see many of the other paintings the way I admired Emmanuel's work but there are many weekends between now and May and I hope to return several times to give the other paintings deeper thought. In fact... once we met Nike (the owner and name-sake of the gallery) there was some discussion about the possibility of us volunteering at the gallery on Saturdays. Of course, I would be delighted to spend my weekends in such a wonderfully inspired place... if not for the art then to hear the rest of Nike's amazing life story....
When we first arrived, I was surprised by the sheer size of the gallery: 5 floors of wall to wall paintings. In fact "wall to wall" is an understatement as there were so many paintings that some of them were arranged on the floor for lack of space. On the 5th floor, I discovered there were literally rooms filled with paintings just waiting for a chance to go on display. Unlike most galleries I've been to, the paintings in the Nike Art Gallery weren't limited to one genre. In fact, different genres, colors, subjects, and styles were hanging right next to each other which is certainly reflective of what it feels like to live in Lagos: everyone and everything piled on top of one another. Although this sounds jarring, I actually thought it to be very inspired. I could spend hours wandering around, taking it all in - and on Sunday afternoon, I did.
The design of the gallery is light and airy with several large windows letting in the beautiful sunshine which seemed to allow the paintings a chance to be seen in their natural, original setting. I absolutely fell in love with the place.
As luck would have it, the first group of paintings were saw were the collected works of the artist of the week and, as the artist of the week, Emmanuel just happened to be on hand to explain his paintings. Emmanuel's work surprised me and I was impressed with his creative re-creations of what might be considered "typical"African scenes and settings. He's a big fan of using the "mixed media" style of painting which, for the non-artsy types, means that he uses materials besides just "paint" to make his paintings come alive. As he explained, he feels as though the textures in his paintings help the viewer understand the intended feeling and perspective behind the scene.
For example, in one of his paintings, he had put a painting canvas on a woven grass mat which was, in turn, placed on top of a wooden crate. On the canvas he painted a picture of a young girl studying on her bed by candlelight but intentionally left the edges of the mat and wooden crate physically poking out of the edge of the painting. This, he explained, is to allow the viewer a deeper understanding, a better perspective of how uncomfortable the bed was for the girl. I was very impressed by his work and I can't remember seeing another artist who has used the same technique. Unfortunately, like most art, it is difficult to capture the genius on film... Still, I did ask Emmanuel if I could take one picture of one of his paintings just to attempt to show others his creative style:
 |
| Picture taken with the artist's permission |
Since an ordinary viewer probably can't discern paint from object, I'll enlighten you. In the above picture, the straw hat on the fisherman's head is actually a straw hat not just a really good painting of a straw hat. Similarly, the rope over the fisherman's shoulder is real rope and the wooden oar to the side of the painting is a real oar (although its probably easier to make out since it's sticking out of the edge of the painting).
Like I said, its difficult to capture this kind of genius on film.
My favorite of Emmanuel's paintings was, undoubtedly, of a fisherman's boat from the perspective of a fisherman looking out towards the horizon. In a fantastic stroke of artistic genius, he had hollowed out the hull of the boat and had stuck another, smaller canvas behind the larger painting to give the boat a feeling of depth and reality. He even explained that he had gone so far as to make the hollowed-out hull the exact depth of a real hull in a real fishing boat. He had then taken another woven grass mat and sewn it into the top of the painting to give the impression of a shade hanger over the top of the boat. I would have never thought to do that.
Of course, with 5 floors of paintings to see, I didn't get a chance to see many of the other paintings the way I admired Emmanuel's work but there are many weekends between now and May and I hope to return several times to give the other paintings deeper thought. In fact... once we met Nike (the owner and name-sake of the gallery) there was some discussion about the possibility of us volunteering at the gallery on Saturdays. Of course, I would be delighted to spend my weekends in such a wonderfully inspired place... if not for the art then to hear the rest of Nike's amazing life story....
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