Samuel Tete-Katchan and Oluwola Omofemi’s exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Alexis Galleries titled Fair and Square, displayed paintings of beautiful young women wearing Afro hair and lots of square figures, just as the theme implies. The show is thought provoking; stirring a discourse on African women’s hair, as the impression created for decades that African hair is not “beautiful” is gradually fading away.
Tete-Katchan, with his Square painting, celebrates geometric forms in his series of realism cubism. His works are characterized by the usage of bright colours and various shapes and forms; which translate into the celebration of the universal family. His works are all about square, which look like they don’t have the right angles and same sizes; all you can see are the portrait of people in form of square.
The Togolese artist also presents works of stained-glass window, where colour assumes the same meaning as forms and symbols, masks and motifs; all merged together depicting the need for a better world.
Everything he tries to paint is his own face and his two daughters’, who are his sources of his inspiration. Anne-Marie and Anne-Michelle is a painting of a garden depicting his daughters playing inside it. The artist believes in the family because “that is where the world started from. If you want to destroy the world you destroy the family.”
Tete-Katchan is also inspired by his religion. This reflects in his Last Support series. I think his Interpretation of the Last Supper is fascinating. He started putting colours and face because he didn’t want to paint like God. “Though we may not come from the same social and cultural background, we are human and we are called to make the world a better place for all.”
His colleague, Omofemi takes us back to the 50s and 60s, when African women wore their natural hair without bleaching it or treating it with chemical. The un-stretched Afro hair was simultaneously a way to celebrate the culture and physical distinctiveness of the Black race. In essence, hair grooming was a way to identify someone’s social status based on ethnicity, social status, social rank, age, marital status, wealth, fertility, manhood, religion and death.
The Ibadan-based artist enjoys expression in acrylic and oil paint, which are his media for vibrant expressive creativity. His works frequently resonates with a deep appreciation of African fashion, rediscovery of forgotten style and Afro-centric pride. For this exhibition he aims to deploy art to revive what he called the “neglected” beautify of black African fashion and showcasing the natural beauty of womanhood with his Fair series.
His subjects are young women in their 20s and 30s. For this show, he is promoting African beauty. “I want to use my work to show the fairness of black with the form and colour that I use. As an artist, I try to also teach women how to dress modest.”
One of the works titled Reflection is about the true identify of a black woman. Peace within is a piece which depicts a young lady with short Afro, there is a halo behind the woman’s head and some butterflies.
The fair part of the exhibition is about the beauty of Africans — African women. It will help to appreciate the black woman’s skin; and for this show, the black women remain his best subject.
More so, Tete-Katchan’s work focuses on religion and family unity, while Omofemi’s Fair series focuses on the beauty of African women. The fact that they have different styles is also intriguing, and the exhibition allows them the opportunity to convey their messages, which centre on various subject matters with different opinions. Tete-Katchan doesn’t portray people the way the world sees them and his choice of colour is very daring.
“At Alexis Galleries, we believe in promoting and giving both established and upcoming artists the chance to showcase their works, express themselves, their style and media. We will continue to support them, not only getting their works exhibited in our gallery but also grow their careers,” said the curator of the exhibition, Patty Chidiac-Mastrogiannis.
“It’s an honour to be the curator of this exhibition and showing the works of Tete-Katchan and Omofemi,” she said and expressed appreciation to Pepsi, Delta Airline and Amarula for sponsoring the exhibition.