Abe Odedina: Under the Influence
February 15 – March 12, 2022
Opening reception, Thursday, February 17th from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
We are happy to announce Under the Influence — a special Project Room installation by Abe Odedina (b. 1960, Nigeria), his first show in Los Angeles. The exhibition of paintings will open Tuesday, February 15th and will be on view through March 12, 2022.
Abe Odedina is a Nigerian-British painter who is based in London and Bahia, Brazil. Under The Influence will present a suite of eight paintings — both portraits and still lifes. Painting on plywood board rather than canvas, Odedina’s compositions embody all the solidity — and practicality — of shop fronts or municipal murals. He offers us a vivid palette with a formal nod to Renaissance portraiture. Odedina describes himself as a folk artist – yet, implicitly and explicitly, his practice questions the validity of ‘folk art’ as a discrete category. His objects embrace their objecthood: a gesture both radical and very simple indeed.
The artist writes to us from Brazil: “It is of great personal significance that I am here in my home/studio in Salvador da Bahia as my first US show opens in Los Angeles…It was here in Salvador (around 2005) that I first fell under the influence of the Orisha (Yoruba Gods) and my transformation from Architect to Painter started with a certain urgency and sense of inevitability. I have often wondered why their influence is so powerfully felt in this part of Brazil and have come to the conclusion that it is because of the uniquely easy access to heaven and hell that is part of daily life. And on a good day you can sense the ladder of dreams with its two-way traffic of angels and demons rising from the earth to the Bahia blue sky. My paintings are a form of artistic veneration, occasionally depicting the Yoruba gods but more often exploring the effects of their influence in the daily lives of humans. Possession by the Orisha is not always an occasion for hysteria but a deep and enduring awareness that wonders will never stop and neither will disasters.”
These figural paintings are highly legible allegorical vernacular. Inspired by the rich figurative and oral traditions of African art, infused with a trace of magical realism, his practice seeks to revive and deconstruct quintessential classical themes spanning from ancient Greek to Yoruba mythologies to create a charged dialogue between epochs, cultures, and peoples.
Solo exhibitions include Cutting Edge, Ed Cross Fine Art, London (2021); Birds of Paradise, Copeland Gallery, London (2019); True Love, The Department Store, London (2018); and Say it Loud, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House, London, (2017). His paintings were included in Talisman in the Age of Difference, Stephen Friedman Gallery (2018); as well as group shows with Ed Cross Fine Art, London (2021); London Art Fair (2021); Art X Lagos (2020); Get Up, Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London (2019); and BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London (2013), among others.
