VICTOR EKPUK’s “State of Beings (Totem)” at Dak’Art 2014

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

State of Beings (Totem) : installation, 220 x510x452x4 cm, acrylic vinyl and metal on wood panel and vinyl mat, 2013, Courtesy of the artist and Fondation Jean-Paul Blachère, Apt, France.

State of Beings is a mixed media installation that combines painting and sculpture in equal measure. The sculptural portion of the work stands upright against the wall whereas the painting is primarily on the floor. The two connect through the continuous lines of Nsibidi, an ancient graphic system that is autochthonous to south-eastern Nigeria and the Ejagham area of northern Cameroon. The swirling script-like patterns of State of Beings are also based on Ekpuk’s own invented signs. The fluidity of the symbols creates continuity in the installation, merging the wall into the ground seamlessly. Conceptually, the installation is a totemic portrayal of the male-female binary as composite of the human condition. The two figures physically face each other. Their emotional and psychic connection is evident in the thick red line that runs across the work, from the head of the male figure to the head of the female.

Victor Ekpuk was born in Nigeria in 1964. In 1989 Victor received his Bachelor of Fine Art degree (BFA), Obafemi Awowolo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, where he first explored the aesthetic philosophies in indigenous African art forms like Nsibidi, and Uli. Their economy of lines and encoded meanings led him to further explore drawing as writing, and to the invention of his own glyphs. In addition to operating a painting studio in Lagos, he was also a prominent editorial illustrator/political cartoonist for Nigerian newspapers before moving to the United States in 1999. He currently lives and works in Washington DC. His artworks are in private and public collections such as Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, Newark Museum, The World Bank, University of Maryland University College, Hood Museum, United States Art in Embassies Art Collection, Fidelity Investment Art Collection. Victor’s work have been featured in such venues as Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois, USA, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York City, USA. Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA. The World Bank, Washington DC, USA. Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA. New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, USA. Johannesburg Biennial, South Africa.

View available artwork by visiting http://www.mortonfineart.com

Morton Fine Art participates in HOME & DESIGN WEEKEND

 

JOIN MORTON FINE ART THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH ANNUAL HOME & DESIGN WEEKEND!

Where?  Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts), Washington, DC 20009

When?  Saturday, April 26 & Sunday April 27 from 12pm-4pm

 

 

ANDREI PETROV reviewed in the Washington Post

In the Galleries: ‘Syria: Sacred Spaces. Ancient Prayers,’ ‘Sedition of Sound,’ ‘Pure’

By Mark Jenkins, Published: April 18

 

Andrei Petrov, Redemption Song, 48″x30″, oil on canvas

 

Andrei Petrov

Like the mid-20th-century abstract expressionists, Andrei Petrov attempts a pictorial equivalent of music. But where the usual preference was jazz, Petrov’s “Sedition of Sound” was inspired by Delta blues and 1960s protest songs. The New York painter writes that his show, at Morton Fine Art, reflects “the shifting moods and sentiments captured in those recordings.”

The colors and textures in Petrov’s paintings shift, although usually over a steady visual beat. Typically, his pictures emphasize a vertical pattern, something like a wood’s grain. Over that matrix, the artist adds splatters, rough circles, contrapuntal gestures and areas that simulate tears in the canvas. These may represent another of Petrov’s themes, “the distortion, incompleteness and rare moments of clarity in the shadows of memory.”

The artist employs both addition and subtraction. He builds up layers of oil paint over pencil and charcoal drawings, and ink and acrylic washes, yet later rubs and scrapes pigment from the surface. Most of his pictures feature a wide array of hot hues, often in gushes or glimmers than suggest lava or sunlight. Some of the show’s most striking compositions are more limited in color, whether to black, white or gray or the blue, white and orange of the vast “Theoretical Geography.” Whatever it represents, subtraction serves Petrov well.

Sedition of Sound: New Paintings by Andrei Petrov On view through April 22 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW; 202-628-2787; www.mortonfineart.com.

Andrei Petrov, Piece of My Heart, 24″x47″, oil on canvas

African Origins Exhibition featuring OSI AUDU, ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY, VICTOR EKPUK and NNENNA OKORE

AFRICAN ORIGINS

4 Contemporary Artists Born in Africa and Living in the US featuring OSI AUDU, ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY, VICTOR EKPUK and NNENNA OKORE

April 25- May 20, 2014

 

OPENING RECEPTION 

Friday, April 25th, 6pm-8pm

 Local artists will be in attendance.

MFA’s exhibition African Origins explores artwork by four African-born, culturally hybrid artists currently living in the United States – three from Nigeria and one from South Africa.

The viewer is invited to explore African Origins by contemplating a range of original voices, overlaps and differences in aesthetic, medium, and subject. These artists successfully integrate diverse experiences and cultural inspirations from their respective African roots, and from their life in the United States.

OSI AUDU, I Have a Landscape in my Head IV (diptych), 2014, 24″x24″ each, wool & graphite on canvas

About OSI AUDU (New York, b. Nigeria): 

OSI AUDU works in series, and is inspired by the discourse on the nature of consciousness, the dualism of something and nothing, light and dark, form and void.  Inspired by the Yoruba people of Western Nigeria’s belief that consciousness, referred to as the “head”, has both a physical dimension called the “outer head” and a spiritual one, “the inner head”, he fuses together cultural, scientific, and artistic ideas. His drawings on paper, titled – Self-Portrait are more about the portrait of the intangible essence of self, rather than a literal portrait of the artist. His drawings can also be made directly on the wall as a large scale wall drawing.

His new series –  I Have a Landscape in my Head, is about the way neurons light up in the brain, like fireflies, during a conscious experience. It explores the idea that perception takes place inside the head, as an interpretation of electromagnetic neural impulses that light up in the brain, and thus question the boundary between “outer” and “inner”.  AUDU has integrated a visual Interactive element – if the viewer stares fixedly at any of the abstract shapes on the left (color) canvas for about 20 seconds and transfers gaze to the same spot on the drawn (monochromatic) canvas  on the right, the viewer will see the shapes light up in the complementary colors of the color canvas.

 

Select collections include Newark Museum, The British Museum, The Horniman Museum, The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and National Gallery, Lagos.

ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY, Little Madam and the Girl, 2014, 27.5″x15″, mixed media on panel

 

About ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY (Washington, DC b. South Africa): 

Rosemary Feit Covey was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a career spanning three decades she has exhibited internationally and received countless awards.  Ms. Covey’s work is in many major museum and library collections, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the New York Public Library Print Collection, the National Museum of American History, Harvard University, the Papyrus Institute in Cairo and 512 works in the permanent collection of Georgetown University Library. There is currently a retrospective of Ms. Covey’s wood engravings and installation work on display at the Evergreen Museum in Baltimore.

“In my art work on South Africa I have tried to deal with issues, not admitted, to face the taboos of the culture I came from. I have tried to understand what I knew as a child and where it meshes with history. Guilt is a subject that colors my work.  Communal guilt but especially non-participatory guilt. In the documentary Hitler’s Children, a man describes playing in a garden, while on the other side was the concentration camp his father commanded. My experience was not so literal or extreme but the metaphor applies. I did live on the other side of the fence. ” -ROSEMARY FEIT COVEY

VICTOR EKPUK,
Composition 7, 50″x50″, pastel and graphite on paper

 

About VICTOR EKPUK (Washington, DC b. Nigeria):

VICTOR EKPUK’s art began as an exploration of nsibidi “traditional” graphics and writing systems in Nigeria, and has since evolved to embrace a wider spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses.  His artwork is in the permanent collection of Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, Newark Museum, The World Bank, and University of Maryland University College Art.

The central theme of Ekpuk’s work is the exploration of relationships, challenges, and responses to changes that characterize the contemporary human condition.  Of particular interest to his oeuvreis nsibidi, an indigenous African system of writing that employs graphic signs and codes to convey concepts. Inspired by these ancient writings, the forms in his works are reduced to a basic essence resulting in new symbols or codes in script-like drawings.

 

NNENNA OKORE,
Bodily Beings, 2011, dimensions variable, burlap, handmade paper and dye

 

About NNENNA OKORE (Illinois b. Nigeria): 

With a BA in Painting from the University of Nigeria and both an MA and MFA in Sculpture from University of Iowa, NNENNA OKORE’s work broadly focuses on the concepts of recycling, transformation and regeneration of forms based on observations from ecological and man-made milieus. She is drawn to uniquely diverse and tactile characteristics of the collective physical world, astounded by natural phenomena that cause things to become weathered, dilapidated and lifeless – those events slowly triggered by aging, death and decay – and subtly captured in the fluid and delicate nature of life.

Her materials are biodegradable and comprise largely of old newspapers, found paper, ropes, thread, yarn, fibers, burlap, dye, coffee, starch, clay, etc. Through manually repetitive techniques as mirrored in both natural and mechanical reproductions, her processes of fraying, tearing, teasing, twisting, weaving, dyeing, waxing, accumulating and sewing allow her to interweave and synthesize the distinct properties of materials.  OKORE systematically deconstructs and reconstructs her media to yield subtle transformations of visual complexities. And much like impermanent earthy attributes, her organic and twisted forms mimic the dazzling intricacies of trees, barks, topography and architecture.

“I desire to heighten through my works, the perception of textures, undulating contours and movements that exist within our ephemeral world; and to evoke some reflection about how we can better preserve and care for our earthbound surroundings. ” NNENNA OKORE

Learn Painting Realistic Watercolors from MARIO ANDRES ROBINSON

Mario Andres Robinson, Transition, water color on paper, 22″x16″, currently available at Morton Fine Art

 

Learn realist techniques every watercolorist should know! Join Mario Robinson as he shares the secrets to radiant watercolor works. Establish your subject’s light, middle and dark values with a tonal underdrawing. Learn proper techniques for stretching your paper to achieve a pristine surface. Create symmetrical features and mass big shapes using intuition to achieve a more natural appearance. Work through a monotone wash, explore water manipulation and work wet into wet for optical color mixing. Finally, build form and dimension into your watercolor with a special drybrush technique. Discover the keys to luminous, expressive watercolor paintings today!

Mario Robinson, Instructor of Painting Realistic Watercolors

Mario Robinson developed his realist style while studying at the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Moved by the works of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas, Robinson himself is now considered a master watercolorist. He is an exhibiting artist member of The National Arts Club, an artist member of The Salmagundi Club and a signature member of The Pastel Society of America. His work has been featured in various publications, including The Artist’s Magazine and American Art Collector, and on the cover of American Artist magazine. He has been named one of the top 20 realist artists under the age of 40.

More than 100 artists are currently enrolled!  For more information please visit the following link:

http://www.craftsy.com/class/painting-realistic-watercolors/3978?uo=4.8.2014-blog&_ct=4.8-sbqii-hekdtkf-rbew&_ctp=3978

View images of ANDREI PETROV’s exhibition “Sedition of Sound”

SEDITION OF SOUND

New Oil Paintings by ANDREI PETROV

March 28 – April 22, 2014

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

EXHIBITION LOCATION  Morton Fine Art (MFA) 1781 Florida Ave NW (at 18th & U Sts) Washington, DC 20009 HOURS  Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm Sunday 12pm-5pm About the inspiration for Sedition of Sound: In the 20th century music has served as a medium to express injustice, lack of freedom, loss of love and opposition to war. The blues from the field recordings from the Delta in the twenties or the protest songs from the sixties both evoked unjust circumstances that demanded change. Power from song extended the messages, of speeches and protests, through records played on the airwaves or at home and shaped imagination. This series of paintings is a reflecting pool of the shifting moods and sentiments captured in those recordings. – Andrei Petrov About ANDREI PETROV’s process (New York, b. USA): The production of a painting begins with a pencil or ink drawing on paper which I extrapolate from and edit as I work the canvas. First with pencil or charcoal and then with color washes done with acrylic or ink, I map the raw canvas and allow it to be ingrained with the materials. Once satisfied with the composition and balance, the surface is sealed with a clear acrylic so as to allow the use of oil based pigments. Handmade tools are used to drag, apply, scrape and blend the paint across the canvas plane. Sandpaper and rags also propel the evolution of the work. The addition and subtraction of paint are meant to act as a metaphor for the intentions and motives for which the paintings are based. – Andrei Petrov