I just saw yesterday's essay written by Gabriel Olawale in Vanguard Nigeria Newspapers- People leaving home country are faced with an identity crisis – Studio Artist.
LAGOS —A dedicated studio artist, Anthony Nsofor has revealed that people leaving their home country in search of a better life are most times faced with identity crises in their new country of residence. Speaking during his Solo Exhibition at O’DA Art Gallery in Lagos, Nsofor said that traveling sometimes makes someone become something else, “I started questioning the things that make one Nigerian and you find out that certain things mean things that may tie you down to an identity. “I realize also that with the internet, we can have a personality that spreads across borders- physical borders, boundaries, and geographical location, and all of that no longer restrains as it did some twenty years ago.”
Nsofor said that his new Solo Exhibition titled ‘Some Came By Sea, Others By Land,’ will run from September 23 to October 21 and will parade no fewer than 25 works. “This provocative work confronts the issue of migration and the reality of living in the shadows of someone else’s experience.
The new show-curated by Sunshine Alaibe- is a culmination of several moments of introspective by the artist whose career path has burrowed through different continents and cultures.
Speaking on the partnership, Lagos-based curator, Creative Consultant, and Art Dealer, Sunshine Alaibe said that Nsofor’s conscious engagement with others had served as the eye-opener on the subject matter of migration and identity in this show which opened on September 23. “He started the series as a reflection of his own personal experience but he also felt like he needed to document other people as well, differently. All through his 20-year career, he has been painting as a reflection of his study. His style is influenced by his time at school in Nsukka. If you look at his works, you will see all shapes and his deliberate ways of drawing faces. It is abstract expressionism.’’
She further revealed that the artist projects his shared experience of feeling alienated through the body of works. “It is kind of ironic that in being together, you are meant to be isolated but then you are all sharing the experience of being alienated in one space.”
Here is the link to the Vanguard Nigeria Newspapers post- http://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/10/people-leaving-home-countryre-faced-with-identity-crisis-studio-artist/
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