By Japhet Davidson

He sees himself as a God taught artists and ever since he left his communications job for his passion art, he has been able to mingle with the high and low in the society.

And as part of his avowed mission of giving back to the society, Sylverster Agudah, the CEO of SylverscreenArts has been in the business of training young artists, this he did recently when he organised a group exhibtion tagged Expo 2.

The three day group exhibition which is coming on the heels of the success of Expo 1 opened on 28^th, 29^th April and 1^st May at Radisson Blu Hotel Ikeja. It featured the works of six emerging Nigerian contemporary artists. They include, Opeyemi Pimoh , Elisha Kapua, Bolu Ezra Ikuemonisan, Maryjane Ovayioza and Ajibola Eedris Adekanmbi.

The artists most of them who are young graduates who were exhibiting their works for the first time presented an interesting mix of works that represents a wide spectrum of aesthetic, conceptual perspectives and creativity. Displayed were works in diverse media that shows the creative handiwork of these promising Nigerian artists. For the exhibiting artists, it was commendation galore for the management of SylverscreenArts for providing such wonderful opportunity to them to showcase their works.
Speaking about the exhibition, the curator, Ifeanyichukwu Oraemeka said “Expo 2 is a Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR project of SylverscreenArts, we do this to give opportunity to emerging contemporary artists, by providing them with the platform to showcase their works.

There is a need to bring artists together to show their works done in various styles, medium to the world and that we have done with Expo2. It was a very good opportunity for them and it was quite interesting, the feedback is good, the compliments very amazing. We will keep on doing it.

A lot of them are happy, this is the first time most of them are showing their works and people are buying them, there is prospects.”

On the exhibiting artists, Elisha Thadius, a graduate of Federal College of Education, Yola, Adamawa who presented 24 works is an emerging artist who is trying to define his future through art. He saw the exhibition as a platform to achieve his mission. His works highlight African cultures, traditions, her people and the beauty of the continent. His art medium includes painting, mixed media, sculpture, collage. He is in constant search for the best way to interpret his ideas. He doesn’t know if his art will create a revolution in the traditional sense, but he is certain it can invoke a powerful change in an individual.

Bolu Ezra Ikuemonisa who presented 10 works, says his mission was, “to document humanity, talk about history, relative way of representation like objects.” This he reflected in one of his works titled Transience. He sees life is not static, “Nothing last forever, everything has expiry date. If you are feeling sad or good, it can not last for ever.”

Maryjane Ovayioza who presented 12 works in diverse media says she want to use her art as a tool for communication and share hope for the future and liberty to be who you truly are. She gets her inspirations to create from life’s occurance and different emotions as she feels it. Actualizing her ideas to artworks and seeing how it resonates with people has been quite fulfilling to her. One of her works,

A glimpse of hope depicts a mother and child, a woman that has gone through a lot and the child representing hope.