By Henry Akubuiro
With 50 pieces of paintings and photography, multidimensional artist, Adeyinka Akingbade will be the cynosure of eyes at The Art Pantheon from Saturday 26 June-24 July, 2021, at The Art Pantheon Gallery, 12D, Bosun Adekoya Street, Oniru, Lekki, Lagos.
The exhibition is also showing during the one-month period at Grandeur Hotel, Block 120, Plot 2, Bosun Adekoya Street, Oniru, Lekki, Lagos from Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am-6pm..
Themed State of Mind, The Art Pantheon, said it expresses the emotion behind reason and reaction. Akingbade’s gathering of multiple medium in art, the gallery added, is an artistic expression, exploring the diverse fruits of the thing between two ears of everyone
“Through our unique perspective, we observe reality, we think and conjure emotions which in turn brush and stroke our perception of reality with beautiful hues of emotions,” Director at The Art Pantheon, Nana Sonoiki, said during a preview.
“With the events of 2020 tilting the axis of our shared reality and altering our collective perspective of the boundaries of impossibilities, this exhibition conveys a new twisted view of possibilities with the assertiveness and dialogical musing of Adeyinka Akingbade’s vigorous brushstrokes and mixed media.”
Among the works for the exhibition are Philanthropist Spoken Words series, Cryloc on canvas; Response Ability I, monoprint on paper, 2018; Focus II, monoprint on paper, 2017; and Self-endorsement, acrylic on canvas, 2017. As part of the diverse textures of the exhibition, quite some works in monochrome add novelty to the concept of ‘mind’ management perception of the show.
For instance, Akingbade, in Philanthropist Spoken Word, implores the richness of multiple colours to create a mould-effect technique in painting. And flaunting his mastery in design is his choice of the red background that celebrates the bold multi colour face of the subject. The artist’s penchant for creative application of red, in bold mood, is also noticed in Self-endorsement.
An award-winning painter, photographer, and graphic designer, Akingbade graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the Yaba College of Technology in 2008, specialising in painting.
Akingbade’s experimental photography and mixed media works were featured in the German magazine, Borriolah-Gha. In 2014, he exhibited at the 25th Annual Festival of the Arts in Chicago, USA. In 2016, Akingbade was invited to a 6week artist residency in Sweden that included a conference on Contemporary Art at Orebro Art College led by Peter Ekstron, Rector of Orebro Art College.
Last December, Art Pantheon announced its entry into the Nigerian art business environment with Metals, a solo exhibition of Dotun Popoola’ at The Grandeur. “We have a partnership with The Grandeur that’s why we’re extending this new show there,” Sonoiki disclosed.
Art Pantheon specialises in exhibitions, documenting private and corporate collections and offering appraisals and valuations for insurance and market evaluations.