On Saturday, October 26, 2024, Bloom Art hosted “Uniting Forms,” a captivating group exhibition at its Victoria Island art salon, drawing art enthusiasts and collectors alike. Curated by the acclaimed Ugoma Ebilah, this exhibition celebrated the power and diversity of contemporary Nigerian sculpture, showcasing works by eight prominent artists who delve into themes of society, environment, and the female form.
Through this exhibition, Bloom Art once again demonstrated its commitment to fostering social and cultural development, cementing its place in Nigeria’s art scene with innovative programming. The event featured powerful pieces by Boma Joe-Jim, Adeyinka Akingbade, Angela Isiuwe, Dare Adenuga, Olumide Onadipe, Peter Adelaja, Richardson Ovbiebo, and Uchay Joel Chima—each with a distinct voice yet contributing to a cohesive exploration of form and identity.
Boma Joe-Jim’s body of work offers recognizable female torsos in wood, capturing elegance, beauty, delicateness and fluidity at different moments. A seasoned sculptor mentored by the legendary Bisi Fakeye, Joe-Jim had brought his over 25 years’ experience in practice at the Universal Art Studio, Lagos, to bear on his latest pieces, contriving such gait that patronizes our sense of today’s perfect model.
Adeyinka Akingbade, a painter, photographer and graphic designer has projected seemingly mono-chromatic, pale images of human forms in juxtaposition, from an otherwise two-dimensional surface in his mixed-media, paper-heavy body of work titled “Testimonial”. These works which manifest as contoured 3D-like folds possess extended meanings beyond their physical look, and offer suggestions on the artist’s interest in (improvised) materiality as a meaningful composite in minimalism.
Angela Isiuwe, the only female in the collective here, is arguably one of Nigeria’s finest contemporary artists, and her over 27 years of practice ranks her amongst the top artists who have continually defined the depth of contemporary visual language in Africa, while carving out a place of pride for female artists in what appears a male-dominated field, especially in Africa.
A product of the Auchi Art School, Angela is a painter and multimedia artist famous for her minimalist, but striking abstract figures. She is represented in this collection by several of her delicate metal sculptures; a relatively less-circulated aspect of her rich artistic repertoire. These works draw themes from the socio-cultural and economic disposition of the woman in society, and very typical of Angela, properly place the female gender just as they are, without casting them in a partisan frame of feminism.
In this new experiment in sculpture, Angela organically engages such contemporary discourse of uniting artistic impulse with media and style effectively. Thus, we see her fascinating figures conveying feminine elegance, charm, sophistication within random moments of contemplation, melancholy, and cheer, all in the unparalleled spontaneity of simple metal lines.
Dare Adenuga’s avant-garde mixed-media fashions female forms and images with twines on the surface of his colorful canvas to weave embroidered imageries and metaphors analogous to human dispositions. “Do I say yes, Do I say no” and “Maidens’ Roomy Talks”, are a few examples of moments of pertinent contemplations and conversations amongst women.
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Adenuga further takes on a serious subject in his Self-Appreciation series in terracotta which depicts nude plump women in delightful postures of beauty. Here, the artist lends his voice to the contemporary discourse of what constitutes beauty against the backdrop of prevalent body-shaming of overweight people in society with its wider psychological implications.
While Adenuga’s style and material may have taken a shift from the traditional canvas and paints according to the dictates of his Yaba School training, his treatment of the human subjects nevertheless betrays his inclination towards realism.
Peter Adelaja is a dancer and sculptor from the Ife School, who during his experiments at the annual Harmattan Workshop organized by iconic artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya, has used the stone medium, among other materials, to translate his ideas about interconnectivity, dynamic energies and the underlying idea that the space humans occupy isn’t limited by geography, but permeates into the metaphysical, psychological and sublime environments.
Peter’s love for deliberate dynamic movements and his experiences as a dancer and martial artist are expressed in the most visceral and tangible way in his grotesque, twisted abstract stone works.
Uchay Joel Chima’s educational background at the Institute of Management Technology Art School equips him to constantly create alternative means of expression. His thematic concerns are largely based on environmental and social issues in Nigeria and beyond, including climate change and global warming, as he attempts to proffer solutions. His art incorporates a wide range of materials including charcoal, sand, strings, wax, disused sacks and paint to create thought-provoking works such as “Glowing Shadow” which features in this show.
Richardson Ovbiebo, a sculptor and installation artist from the Yaba School, explores the role individuals play as mirrors of their environment; their actions and inactions, and general disposition.
In Oviebo’s works, some disused industrial objects, or utilities are often repurposed to emphasize the relevance of many things we consider wastes. His works in this exhibition features wheels, metal lanterns, motor plugs and metal sheets, used to fabricate human busts to depict his subject.
Olumide Onadipe is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose idiosyncratic sculptures are built using diverse media including plastics. The artist stimulates conversations on socio-political issues through his works often applied as visual metaphors, with a propensity to arouse public social consciousness. Olumide studied arts and education at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos.
It was a true delight to witness the blending of these artists and their varied sculptural expressions in the exhibition “Uniting Forms” presented at Bloom Art and curated by Ugoma Ebilah.