By JAPHET ALAKAM

Emenike Ogwo is one of the great painters of Nigeria’s traditional  contemporary art, and ever since he graduated from the Federal Polytechnic Auchi, Edo State, in 1994, he has shown his love for his immediate environment, and most times, draws attention to it through most of his works.

And after his last solo exhibition  in 2009 titled  Fourth Edition at the National Museum, Lagos,  the painter who prefers to use his art as a way to express his cultural pride and his belief in freedom of speech and positive living, is set for another solo show titled Impastro.

The one week visual exhibition of paintings which is a collection of works from his recent past to the  present is scheduled to open at the Lagos culture house, Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos on the 8th of September and run to 13th of September, 2012.

*Tokunbo car pack (Marina), one of the works to be exhibited

With his unique style which is often thought provoking and good combination of colours, the artist who believes in using whatever he has to change the system while showing the situation through paintings speaks to Nigerians with his new works.

Displaying his creative ability, Ogwo through most of the works stresses his love for colours while still making his statement about the state of things in his environment. Impastro according to him is “a textual technique of expressing yourself using colours. In the works you could see a level of colours and that was what informed the title.” He said.

Combining the five characteristics of a superior painting, the artist who dwells on nature and his environment to draw attention to his art once again uses his medium to critically highlight the ills of the society and at same time advocate for social change.

With about 40 paintings in large, miniature and extra large sizes, visitors and art lovers who has been craving to see the works of the instinctive painter will not be disappointed with the quality of works. Some of the works include, Tokunbu car park(Marina), CMS Bus stop, The Good Shepherd, Breast Feeding, what future etc.

For example in the work titled  Breast Feeding, what future which depicts a young cow following the mother, Ogwo uses the work to draw attention to the clamour by health experts on the need for mothers to breast feed their babies.

In his artistic statement,the artist said, “In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. But internal  factors may be even more crucial in accessing one’s development as a human being – Honesty, Sincerity, Simplicity, Humility, Purity, Generosity, Absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men to mention but a few. This exhibition “Impasto” deals with qualities within the reach of every soul which is the foundation of one’s spiritual life.”

A look at the works displayed showed a deeper reflection of some of the ills in the society, but the way the artist paints it makes the viewer to love the work to the extent that even if he/she is depressed, a look at  it probably put him/her in a kinder frame of mind.