By Chukwuma Ajakah

As part of activities marking her Second and Third Combined Convocation Ceremony slated for Thursday, December 23, 2021, Mountain Top University, MTU, Ibafo, Ogun State, Nigeria will from Tuesday, December 21, 2021, to January 10, 2022, organize a post-doctoral art exhibition featuring the works of Dr Peacemaker Efeoghene Alexander, a renowned illustrator, fabric collagist and Research Fellow at the university.

Peacemaker Efeoghene, a prolific Impressionistic Painter, who has overtime explored the oil, acrylic and other media of expression, is a renowned visual illustrator with over 1,500 commissioned illustration drawings and colour works for educational publications and contemporary visual paintings in public and private collections.

In 2019, Peacemaker Efeoghene, a member of Society of Nigerian Artists and Free Painters & Sculptors, in Buckingham, England, pioneered Visual Arts, at the Mountain Top University, MTU where he now works as a Research Fellow. He has received numerous awards and his paintings have been widely exhibited.

The programme of events released by the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Elijah Adebowale Ayolabi and made available to journalists at a press briefing held on Monday, December 13, 2021 at the School of Art, Design, and Printing Technology, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos showed that the art exhibition will be spiced with a music fiesta provided by the institution’s music group. Every Student a Musician, ESM, which parades musical talents from various departments. The art exhibition is scheduled to open at 10:00 am at the College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences Building.

According to Peacemaker, the exhibition themed, “Fabricating Painting: Conceptualization of Fabric Collage Technique on Grounds” will feature 33 of his works, including the non-catalogued ones he had used for his MPA and PhD theses.

Titles of works to be featured include the following: Hausa Trumpeter, Kaa Kaki Player, Durbar Race, and Agama Lizard, Gouge Player, Urhobo Couple, Urhobo Dance Rhythm, African-American Tune, Act of Gratitude, Through the Rain, Flower Vase and Through the Sahara 1&2.

The artworks will be presented in four categories, depicting the progressive evolution of traditional impressionistic paintings in acrylic paint medium on canvas.

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Asked about what new things his guests should expect, the art connoisseur enthused: “I will be exhibiting works that showcase painting effects in fabric collage technique, using unaltered fabric in their original colour grades on divergent grounds, as against the conventional practice on canvas ground, expressing visual concepts in fabric collage technique on varied grounds such as wood-board, glass, ceramic tile, lithographic plate, mesh, paper card, straw card, bamboo and glass bottle,” and concerning the subject matter he explores, he added: “My works express landscape sceneries, figures, still and natural object concepts which address current human and societal lifestyle and issues, such as commerce, music, entertainment, celebration, local events and insecurity.”

Speaking on his expectation from the exhibition, Dr. Peacemaker Efeoghene Alexander remarked that he would like to see MTU become “a hub where other schools and students can come to exhibit their skills.”

He pointed out that he went to learn how to teach art in order to make impact and raise a generation of talents who would revolutionize painting.

In 2001 he discovered the fabric collage technique while working as an elementary school Fine Art Teacher, at the Caleb International Primary School, Ikosi, Ketu, Lagos. He also taught Fine Art at ADRAO International School, Victoria Island, Lagos in 2005.

Stating the purpose of the exhibition, Peacemaker said: “This solo Art exhibition is aimed at opening a new vista into novel researches in Fine and Applied Arts Department of MTU, to successfully pioneer a degree programme in visual and design fields of creativity.

“Researchers, visual artists and designers need to access available information in this exhibition to adopt new approaches in their creativity. Adoption of fabric collage painting technique will expose students to new methodologies in their creative endeavours.”

Citing renowned educators like Kolade Osinawo whose impact remains visible long after they had left Yaba College of Technology, Peacemaker implored lecturers, especially those in the arts, to seek to impart knowledge, saying: “I teach art to raise young artists. I’m not just someone that came to look for money, but to create impact.”

Speaking to journalists during the press briefing, a former Dean of the School of Arts, Design and Printing Technology, Dr Kunle Adeyemi decried the apathetic disposition of Nigerian parents towards art education, saying that most of them end up frustrating the children whom they force into conventional career lines without considering their aptitude for such courses and natural flair for arts.

However, Adeyemi acknowledged that a few parents like his own father deserve commendation for being the pillars of support in their wards’ quest for self-expression in creative arts.

In the same vein, Peacemaker reminisced on how his mother inadvertently turned him into artist when he was in primary and secondary schools in Lagos Island, saying: “My mother wanted to keep me away from the negative influence of bad boys on the Island.

“When she discovered that I had interest in fine arts she bought me things like poster colour. Later, I got to know that we lived close to the National Museum where I met art masters that ignited my passion like the sculptor, Dr. Nwanji, who was the Coordinating Director of Children Holiday Program.

“I was also inspired by Dr. Kunle Adeyemi’s painting exhibition of stereofoam mixed media paintings.”

Peacemaker recalled how he was inspired to go fully into the fabric collage medium which he began with pieces of patterned fabric his pupils had gathered from a tailor’s workshop. He has now become so versatile that he uses plain fabric of diverse shades of given colours on multifarious grounds in a mixture of paint and fabric.

Peacemaker Alexander Efeoghene is completely sold out to the arts which he passionately teaches and practices.

He holds MFA and PhD degrees in Painting from the University of Benin. He had also specialized in painting in his HND at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.

Curator of the post-doctoral art exhibition, Ekpo Udo Udoma described him as a very hardworking impressionistic artist who takes art seriously and has done a lot of research, culminating in innovative paintings that art enthusiasts and collectors would love to feast their eyes on.

The artist also spoke of his mentors in the genre of fabric collage such as the feminist American photo-realistic fabric collagist, Laura Breitman, saying: “I contacted her in 2014 during my MFA programme at the University of Benin.

“I thought I was the only one working with fabric when the professors instructed me to link my research to others.

“I started searching until I found that Laura had been on it since 1987 when I was just leaving secondary school.”

He listed other American fabric collage masters that inspire him as Debbie Jones and Tim Harding, pointing out that: “There is none in Nigeria. My findings reveal no record of any fabric collage artist when I started fabric collage in 2004.”

Vanguard News Nigeria