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.
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Asian Uboikpa (Hip Sista) Series #10, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 60″x48″
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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
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.
Tags: African American, African Diaspora, Asian Uboikpa, Auto-Graphics, Contemporary African Art, contemporary art, Dartmouth, dc, Florida Ave, Hip Sistas, Hood Museum, MFA curators, MFA Gallery, morton fine art, Morton Gallery, Newark Museum, Nigerian, Nigerian Contemporary Artist, nsibidi, Smithsonian Museum of African Art, The World Bank, Victor Ekpuk, washington
One of Nate Lewis’s works on display at Morton Fine Art. (Courtesy of the artist and Morton Fine Art)
Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 