ART EXPO NIGERIA AUGUST 27-31, 2008, NATIONAL MUSEUM ONIKAN LAGOS

The National Gallery of Art, (NGA) Abuja in conjunction with the Art Galleries Association of Nigeria (AGAN) will be staging from August 27-31, 2008 the first ever art fair of its kind in Nigeria. Simply tagged Artexpo Nigeria, the fair is conceptualized to be an annual event for the Visual Arts sector.

The event which will be opened formally at the National Museum Onikan, Lagos on the 27th of August, 2008 at 12.00 noon, shall feature art works from 30 art galleries. On exhibit shall be the works of various artists from the Old Masters both living and dead such as Ben Enwonwu, Prince Okuku, Bruce Onobrakpeya and David Dale among others, to the works of the younger generation. According to the President AGAN, Chief Frank Okonta who is also the proprietor of Nkem Gallery, “Art Expo is an opportunity for all those who love art to come and see the richness of Nigeria’s robust visual arts culture.”

In this show, over 750 art works will be on display and much like Artexpo New York which is the world’s largest fine & popular art fair, it is hoped that the Nigerian version will ultimately become the biggest art show in Africa. The intention is to create an art marketplace that will offer the general public an opportunity to see original paintings and sculpture, and works on paper. Whether you're a seasoned collector, interested in adding to the allure of your home's interior design, or simply an art enthusiast interested in viewing the latest trends in the visual arts, Artexpo Nigeria will have something for everyone.

Art Expo is an initiative of the National Gallery of Art and is being executed through the AGAN, a new body that has been set up to bring all galleries in the country together under one umbrella. It membership cuts across the country even though majority of the galleries are based in Lagos.


— EKpo UDOMA, ADMINISTRATOR, VISUAL ARTS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, VASON

Work-in-Progress. New professional development platform at CCA,Lagos

The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos has initiated a dynamic platform for visual art and culture discussions since opening its doors in January 2008. We have had artists, critics, writers, curators and funders talking about their work, their ideas and sharing their skills and knowledge base with us.

CCA,Lagos continues in its aims to build a strong education and public programme that reaches out to the widest audience possible. We aim to actively encourage debate and critical discourse that engages with topical issues that affect our society specifically and the world in general. To fulfill our objectives we invite local, African and international guest speakers to talk on a wide ranges of themes and issues concerning contemporary art and culture.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos launches a new professional development platform called Work-in- Progress on Thursday the 21st of August 2008. WIP provides an opportunity for artists, critics, curators to present a project during the developmental process and in return receive constructive critiques from an engaged audience.

Work-in-Progress provides a much needed platform to flesh out problems, elaborate on ideas, to explore varied possibilities and to get feedback from colleagues.The aim is to tackle the isolation cultural practitioners sometimes experience in creating new work, developing their idea and moving to an advanced level in their work and experimentations.

Expected Results include:

• Presenters benefit from timely feedback from their peers and colleagues.
• Presenters can hone their ideas further, take what is useful, play around with what is not so useful and make useful what is useless.
• Presenters can develop their communication skills and learn to articulate their ideas fully within 20mins.
• Audience members will also develop their communication and critical skills. They must be able to convincingly substantiate/argue their points for and against particular ideas.

In the process it is hoped that presenters and audience come away from WIP with a mutually beneficial exchange.

WIP1 Presenters, Thurs 21st August 2008 2pm - 4.30pm

Toyin Bello, Photographer, Musician, Music Video Director.

TY will present Atoned a yet (but soon) to be released music video in which she aims to develop a synergy between her music, her photographic experience and now her directorial skills through video.

George Osodi, Photographer
George will present Devil's Dexterity (Draft title) the beginning of a new body of work which is taking on a more conceptual framework than his previous documentary work. The starting point is the remnants of accidents that we see on the Nigerian roads to explore the vulnerability of life and the tragic beauty of the landscape.

Bisi Silva, Curator
Bisi will present Precious little things in life, (Draft Title) an exhibition proposal being developing as a touring exhibition for a institution in the UK from 2010 and then internationally including to Africa. Through this exhibition she explores the way in which visual artists from Africa, South America and Europe explore the different faces of globalisation highlighting its predatory aspects especially in relation to Africa.
Venue

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
9 McEwen Street, Off Queen Street, Sabo, Yaba
Opp Methodist Church, Herbert Macaulay St, Lagos.

Telephone 0702 8367106

Margie Reese Ford Foundation West Africa Art Programme Officer Margie Reese shares her vast art mangement experience

In August 2008 CCA, Lagos continues its public programme with a talk on sat 16^th by Margie Reese, Programme Officer, Media, Arts and Culture, Ford Foundation West Africa.

Date: Saturday 16th August 2008 2pm - 4.30pm

The session will start with a presentation titled:"Re-Imagine Nigeria" – which focuses on the possibilities of young artists getting involved with helping shape a more positive external view of Nigeria via artists exchange programs that encourage cultural diplomacy. Artists Ndubuisi Nduwhite Ahanonu and Harrison Ikibah will present a review of their visit to the cultural diplomacy symposium in Berlin and share with us their experiences and findings.

Margie Johnson Reese is the Program Officer for Media, Arts and Culture for the Ford Foundation's Office for West Africa based in Lagos, Nigeria. Margie is most noted for her ability to initiate partnerships among unlikely collaborators and her passion for global culture exchange has led her to focus her expertise on developing programs that lead to sustainable cultural institutions. She devotes her spare time to mentoring young arts managers and to helping position arts and cultural programs as a mechanism for influencing diplomatic relationships and foreign policy development.

Margie Reese is a seasoned arts management professional with over 30 years experience in cultural planning, cultural facility development and arts education advocacy. She has worked in Chief Executive positions for the city of Dallas, Texas and the city of Los Angeles, California, where she is noted for launching the city's International Cultural Exchange Program and the successful city-wide music education program, Music L.A.! She has consulted in numerous states in the US and served as advisor in all areas of cultural management and policy development.
Venue
Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos

9 McEwen Street, Off Queen Street, Sabo,
Opp Methodist Church, Herbert Macaulay St, Lagos.

Telephone 0702 8367106

Nigerian Photographer Emeka Okereke captures a part of Maputo during his recent residency

Emeka Okereke recently had a grant from Culturesfrance, a French organisation, to carry out a 2-months project in Maputo (Mozambique) with the support of the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre. He describes the project as “experimental” which has to do with photography and the public space: His idea is based on the concept of exploring unusual but useful spaces as an essential part of a creative process but also addressing issues related to the existing gap between photography and the public: It supports the idea that African artists of today ought to start looking at ways of reaching(also)the indegenous public through pushing the boundries of restrictions erected by "formal spaces".

The first part of the project involves producing photographic works in the famous ferry boat (Bagamoyo) which carries passengers( indigenes, tourists and foreigners) to and fro Maputo and Catembe (a settlement in Maputo seperated from the main city by the idean ocean). He has chosen this ferry because of its has the characteristics of serving as a melting pot between all genre of individuals in Maputo, therefore making the "travessia"a common point of meeting between temporary and permanent inhabitants of Maputo. Inspired by this notion, he has captured minute moments - in black,white and gray - of objects people and activities around the harbour with Bagamoyo (the ferry) as the centre stage.

The second aspect -considered an installation -is a public-space exhibition of the of the photographic images produced at the harbour . Emeka exhibited these photos at the vicinity where they were made: the habour-at the Catembe side of it. The photos are mounted along the length of the bridge with the aid of supporting poles. The prints are made on PVC and are 120 x150cm each. There were 20 images.

Visit the Maputo blog
Visit his website Emeka Okereke

Prof. Sylvester Ogbechie takes time out to conduct a seminar session on Transnationalism at CCA,Lagos

In August 2008 CCA, Lagos continues its public programme with talks by US based Nigerian art historian Professor Sylvester Ogbechie in a seminar session on Wed 6^th and Thurs 7^th.

Wednesday Aug 6^th 2pm – 4pm

and

Thursday Aug 7^th 2pm – 4pm

TRANSNATIONALISM: Art and Identity in Global Africa
This seminar session evaluates the impact of transnationalism and globalization on artistic and cultural practice in contemporary African art and through this process, redefines African art and identity within a global context. It focuses on how the international movement of artists and ideas affect our understanding of African identity and creativity. The course is structured as a hands-on project whose goal is to develop a knowledge system analysis of global African art practices and to examine key cultural and discursive concepts.

Sylvester Ogbechie is Associate Professor of Art History at the department of History of Arts and Architecture, University of California Santa Barbara. Ogbechie has an extensive scholarly background in Classical, Modern, and Contemporary African and African Diaspora arts. His research evaluates Alternative Modernities and the colonial and postcolonial conventions of representation in the arts and visual cultures of African and African Diaspora populations. Prof. Ogbechie is the author of Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist, published by The University of Rochester Press in 2008.

Nigerian Okey Nwafor's curatorial debut in S.Africa

Experimental frontiers:

Society Through The Eyes of
South African and Nigerian Artists

7th -12th August 2008

Opening on 7th August at 17hrs.

Exhibiting Artists

Bright Eke (Nig), Dan Halter (S.Africa), Amarachi Okafor (Nig), Ozioma Onuzulike (Nig), Chike Obeagu (Nig), Stuart Bird (S.Africa) and Ndidi Dike (Nig).

Curated by Okey Nwafor.

Nigeria and South Africa have not really been juxtaposed under the platform of the visual arts. Despite epochal positions occupied by these two countries in the African art scene curators have never thought it expedient to bring these countries face to face under art. Both countries although have had cause to work together in different creative quests have never engaged each other under changing artistic paradigm.

This exhibition is conceptualized not only as an important occasion to address the above theme but also to compare the extent of experimental motivations among younger artists from both countries. The exhibition hopes to interrogate how society has influenced their creative production contextually and formally. Are their motivations socially relevant? Or have their creativities resonated with mere fantastic balderdash? Have they made statements considered as mere rhetoric by the society or have they defied all humanly imposed fear to speak in a manner that reminds one of the emotional temper of 19th Century Romanticism? Diderot notes of two qualities essential for the artist, “Is it socially relevant?” and “is it true?” If this statement is anything worth interrogating then this exhibition has done so in a manner that draws attention to these artists’ sense of seeing. The exhibition tries to initiate debate around the society, the meanings and the purpose of art.

__________________________________________________________________
Okey Nwafor is a student of African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies, a programme of the University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town and Robben Island Museum. He has a BA in Fine and Applied Arts from the department of Fine and Applied Arts of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and MFA from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. He has traveled widely and participated in numerous international workshops and exhibitions. He is a member of the Pan African Circle of Artists. He is also a poet and writer.

The Curator wishes to thank Andrew Lamprecht and Nasan Pather of Michaelis Art School, University of Cape Town for their curatorial advice and help and also the Staff and Management of Vansa Western Cape for their support.