By Osa Amadi

Motions and Emotions is Bolaji Ogunwo’s 4th solo painting exhibition. The works have diverse subjects and media ranging from oil, acrylic and mixed media, addressing the economic and socio-political trajectory of Nigeria.

Bolaji Ogunwo (r) and his curator, Ekiko Ita Inyang;

The exhibition which started on November 17 at Nike Art Gallery, 2 Elegushi Road, Lekki, Lagos, will run till November 24, 2018. The opening day, 17 November, was exclusively for private preview for Art Collectors and VIPs. The show was opened to the general public from 18th November.

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Speaking about his works and this particular exhibition, Bolaji Ogunwo says ‘Motions and Emotions’ is a journey into a new Nigeria that he wishes to see. “It is an exhibition to commemorate and mark my 40th birthday. Come 17th day of this month, I will be displaying 58 paintings representing the 58th independence anniversary of Nigeria.

But what I am doing exactly with this exhibition is to stimulate a contagious optimism amongst Nigerians. I have discovered that if care is not taken with the way we are going, (already), majority of Nigerians have become pessimistic about the progress of this nation and that will not take us anywhere.

“One of the works,” Bolaji says, “asks the question: ‘How did we get here?’. Another painting is titled ‘Where do we go from here?’. These are common place questions you hear people ask. But I believe that this is not the end. I believe there are better times coming for us. Those are the motions and emotions which I have put on my canvases.

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“Also in the course of this exhibition, I have tried to do something differently. I have put some of those paintings together and sent them to scholars, art patrons, and gallery owners, in order to get their opinions and to make statements about the state of Nigeria. So it is a narrative interrogating the democratic architecture of Nigeria. For example, if you want to trigger anger from people, just mention the word ‘change’, and they will (look at you angrily) and say ‘change?’. So one of the paintings is titled ‘Change’ with a negative gaze from a young boy. So the exhibition is about a new Nigeria that is possible.

Hope Alive by Ogunwo.

“Of recent, there has been an upsurge of people leaving this country (Nigeria). People are giving up. Times are hard; there are no doubts about that. But tough times don’t last; only tough people do. A lot of Nigerians believe that nothing good can come out of this country. But I don’t share their pessimism. I believe that in the end, all will be well; and that’s the title of one of the paintings – ‘All Will be Well’.

Other titles are ‘Times and Chance’, ‘Arise O Compatriots’, and an abstract work titled ‘And Justice Shall Reign’. So if you put all these works together, you will see that I am moving a new motion which believes that a change is possible; that better times are possible…but how that change will happen is for all of us to make a difference in our different areas. These are the differences that will culminate into the changes that we desire. So that is what this exhibition is all about.

“I have not painted what is happening or what has happened,” the artist continues. “What I have painted is the future I would like to see. I live here and I work here. I have two children and they carry the green-white-green passports. So I believe that better times are ahead, and that this is not the end. So the repertoire of work on display is addressing some of these issues. One of the works titled ‘Where do we go from here?’ is a woman and a child from the back view. They boy is holding a small cellophane bag showing that times are so hard these days that people can no longer afford to buy a meal for the whole day; they only buy bits, not knowing where the next one will be coming from.

“Now another election is coming. We can make the difference that we desire if we can deploy positive motions towards Nigeria.”

Bolaji says he may not be an activist in the cast of Bob-Nosa. He prefers to be seen as an optimist: “I am not making a change; I am making a difference,” Bolaji says. “Change is too strong a word to promise.”

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Still, another of his paintings is titled ‘Vision and Television’. “What I am painting is a vision, not television. Vision is not what you see with your eyes open, it is what you see in your consciousness. Nigeria will change when we begin to have leaders with vision and not television,” Bolaji says.

Describing the artist and his works, curator for the exhibition, Ekiko Ita Inyang, says “by extracting a theme that draws strong association with open national archive and from texts in the national anthem, Bolaji gives us the impression of a national historian, referencing also the independence day celebration. He is a recorder of history, but then, with a slight deviation; he has imposed a literary meaning to those works. They are works that are steeped in real events; works that are event-driven; works that are meant to ask serious questions…”