VICTOR EKPUK solo “Hip Sistas in Flux : The Visual-Lingual Braid” at Morton Fine Art

Hip Sistas in Flux: The Visual-Lingual Braid

A solo exhibition of new artworks by VICTOR EKPUK

Friday, May 1st- May 21st, 2015

OPENING DAY RECEPTION 

Friday, May 1st, 6pm-8pm

The artist will be in attendance.

Asian Uboikpa (Hip Sista) Series #10, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 60″x48″

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

Victor Ekpuk has a concurrent museum solo exhibition titled

Auto-Graphics : Works by Victor Ekpuk running from April 18th – August 2nd, 2015 at the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, NH. 

 

Hood Museum of Art

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755

603.646.2808

About VICTOR EKPUK

The central theme of Ekpuk’s work is the exploration of the relationships, challenges and responses to changes that characterize the human condition. Of particular interest to his artwork is Nsibidi, an indigenous African system of writing that employs graphic signs, and codes to convey concepts. Inspired by this ancient writings, forms in his works are reduced to basic essence resulting in new symbols or codes in script-like drawings that are used to express contemporary experiences. When combined with Nsibidi signs, these “scripts” also provide the background narrative to his compositions. Most often these narratives are better perceived when they are felt rather than read literally.

 

Victor Ekpuk’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the following noteworthy institutions:

Smithsonian Institution Nation Museum of African Art, Washington DC

The Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Newark Museum, New Jersey

The World Bank, Washington DC

University of Maryland University College Art Collection

The US Department of State

 

 

About Hip Sistas in Flux: The Visual-Lingual Braid

Asian Uboikpa (Hip Sista) series is an engagement of the aesthetics of women of African descent. This series of paintings and drawings started as exploration of the art of hairstyles and body markings: a form of self-expression among young women of southeastern Nigeria. It has expanded to acknowledge similar attitude towards body image and self-expression among young black women in the Diaspora. Asian Uboikpa in Ibibio language references proud young women or virgins, while Hip Sista is an African American idiom used to describe a highly fashionable woman.

Perhaps this attitude of proudly inviting a public gaze by being hip through changing one’s body image with elaborate hairstyles and body adornments is no coincidence. Through genetic memory, these African cultural practices continue to find expression among women of the African Diaspora.

The perpetual flux of the old and the contemporary, of Africa and the Diaspora and the persistence of cultural memory are the main considerations in these works.

-Victor Ekpuk

About Morton Fine Art

Founded as an innovative solution to the changing contemporary art market, Morton Fine Art (MFA) is a fine art gallery and curatorial group that collaborates with art collectors and visual artists to inspire fresh ways of acquiring contemporary art. Firmly committed to the belief that anyone can become an art collector, MFA’s mission is to provide accessibility to museum-quality contemporary art through a combination of innovative exhibitions and a new generation of art services.

“Auto-Graphics : Works by VICTOR EKPUK” at Hood Museum, Dartmouth

Spring will bring variety of arts events to the College

By KOURTNEY KAWANO March 29, 2015 0 Comments

From the visually-engaging and thought-provoking exhibitions at the Hood Museum of Art to the enchanting melodies performed by student ensembles and unique performances that will be shown at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, the 2015 spring arts season is primed to be another term full of celebration for music, film, dance and the visual arts.

Aside from the ongoing events for the current exhibitions such as “About Face: Self-Portraiture in Contemporary Art,” which is on display through August 30, the Hood Museum of Art will open three new exhibitions in April.

“Water Ways: Tension and Flow,” which will open on April 4, will feature more than 24 landscape and portraiture photographs depicting the delicate balance between water’s effect on human life and vice versa. Although most of the works in the exhibition are drawn from the Hood’s permanent collection, the audience will be able to see these works in a new light as they all provide commentary about different aspects of water’s significance for sustaining life. While many of the photographs are from the 20th and 21st centuries, “Water Ways” will also include depictions by Roman and Egyptian artists in conjunction with the Nile Project— a group of musicians, educators and activists who are set to perform a blend of African and Arab music on April 17 in Spaulding Auditorium as a part of the group’s residency from April 13-18. The exhibition will also include the screening of the documentary “Watermark” (2013) on May 20.

Two exhibitions, “Auto-Graphics: Works by Victor Ekpuk” and “Ukara: Ritual Cloth of the Ekpe Secret Society,” will open at the Hood on April 18. “Auto-Graphics” will combine several works by Nigerian artist Victor Ekpuk, including his graphic and pastel print Composition No. 13 (Sante Fe Suite) (2013), which features Ekpuk’s characteristic use of nsibidi, a Nigerian writing form of the Ekpe people. On April 24, Ekpuk himself will give a lecture titled, “Excavating Memories” to share how his cultural and social experiences influences his art.

Hood Museum head of publishing and communications Nils Nadeau said that Ekpuk will create a large-scale drawing in the second-floor galleries, in tandem with the exhibition that is devoted to his recent work, beginning on April 20.

“Anyone can stop in and witness his progress live as he creates a new wall drawing,” Nadeau said.

The exhibition focused on ukara, a traditional cloth that represents the prestige of the Ekpe society, will also explore African culture through the ukaras’ designs and use. Each ukara includes a specific pattern and dye, as well as nsibidi symbols to convey a deeper meaning for the owner. Many of the ukaras featured in the exhibition were given by Eli Bentor, an art history professor at Appalachian State University, who will be leading a panel discussion about the collection on May 15.

To read the article in full, please visit: http://thedartmouth.com/2015/03/29/spring-will-bring-variety-of-arts-events-to-the-college/

Contact Morton Fine Art for available artwork by VICTOR EKPUK.

(202) 628-2787

mortonfineart@gmail.com

http://www.mortonfineart.com

Victor Ekpuk, Composition 7, 50″x50″, pastel and graphite on paper