Get to know Nigerian-born artist OSI AUDU

“The dualism of the tangible and intangible is an area of focus in my work…I find scientific, philosophical, and cultural concepts about the nature of consciousness, and the mind/body relation very fascinating. For example, the Yoruba people of Western Nigeria, believe that consciousness, referred to as the head, has both a physical dimension called the outer head, and a spiritual one, the inner head, and that it originates from a place referred to as eternity. It is the visual implications of some of these concepts that I explore in my work.

In my diptych paintings made with acrylic, wool, and graphite on canvas, I use abstract geometric forms that evoke the human head to present the sheer beauty of color and texture in a way that can be viscerally felt, as well as responded to psycho-physiologically by the eyes; and invite viewers to consider the process of visual perception:

If the viewer stares fixedly at the center of the painted panel on the left for about ten seconds, and then transfers gaze to the center of the drawn panel on the right, an after-image will appear in the complementary colors.

OSI AUDU, Figure I_Outer and Inner Self, Green and Blue, 2012, acrylic,wool and graphite on canvas, Diptych, each panel 24×24 ins

 

My graphite and black pastel drawings titled self-portrait and sequentially numbered, in which I explore the chromatic, light absorbing and reflecting qualities of both mediums, are more about the portrait of the self – that intangible essence of being, and the head as a container of memory, dreams, ideas, and aspirations. ”

-Osi Audu

OSI AUDU, Self-Portrait I, 2012, graphite and pastel on paper, 23 x 30 ins

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Newark Museum

The British Museum

The Horniman Museum

The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA

Wellcome Trust London

National Gallery, Lagos

Nigerian High Commission, London

Iwalewa-Haus, Universitat Bayreuth, Germany

Schmidtbank, Bayreuth, Germany

Addax and Oryx Group, Switzerland

Swiss Embassy, Lagos