By Osa Mbonu-Amadi 

A group exhibition of paintings, sculptures and ceramic sculptures titled NUDUS opens 14 September 2024 and runs till 28 September 2024 at Alexis Galleries, Akin Olugbade Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Adebimpe Owoyemi, curator of the exhibition and one of the exhibiting artists, describes the artists as “a group of prolific women artists”, and “Nudus” as “a Latin word for naked, a state of destitute and deprivation; a void that needs substance, a substance that each artist has interpreted in different contents and expressions with various styles and techniques.”

In all, 8 female artists are scheduled to showcase their works at “Nudus”. Each of the artists spoke spoke briefly with Vanguard at Alexis Galleries in preparation for the exhibition. These are excerpts of what each said about at least, one of her works for the exhibition:       

Djakou Kassi Nathalie, a Cameroonian ceramic sculptor, brings 6 works to the exhibition. “The title of the exhibition is Nudus, which means naked. So I tried to represent different ways of being naked in my works,” Nathalie said. She spoke about one of her works titled “She too sabi”, a character that likes to gossip and tell others’ secrets. Another one titled “Honeymoon” has to do with a bride whose honeymoon is a time to be naked before her husband. 

Ejiro Fenegel, a sculptor, one of whose works for the exhibition is titled “Galaxy” said her works basically tell the story of womanhood. “Galaxy is a collection of stars. Stars stand out. I am trying to portray women as stars that people can look up to for inspiration,” Ejiro said. 

Chidimma Nwafor: One of her works for the exhibition is titled “Within walls without armour 1 & 2”, in which she said she was trying to talk about the vulnerability of women, especially in a society where we have this extreme judgment.” She projects a space where women are free from such judgment.  

Elizabeth C. Ekpetorson, is a painter who brings 3 works to “Nudus”. One of the works is titled “Comfortable in my skin”. “In creating my works, I have always looked at the freedom the human personality possess,” Ekpetorson said. She believes that ”whatever one is doing, one should be comfortable enough to put it out there.”

Almat Adams, a painter, brings 3 paintings to the exhibition. In her “Verbal in radiance”, the woman, she said, shines with her confidence and joy, embracing her sexuality as a source of strength.  

Adepimpe Owoyemi, a painter, bringing 3 works to “Nudus”. In one of her works, “Coat of many colours”, she infuses the aso oke traditional fabric in her figurative paintings. “It’s a figure of a woman that is wrapped with different aso oke of different colours, patterns, lines, shapes, etc., which represent people,” she said.  

Ganiyat Abdulazeez is a painter whose one of the works for the exhibition is titled “Unbroken 1 & 2”. In “Unbroken”, she expresses the survival of women; what women go through… how females fight for their freedom, etc.

One of the participant artists, Boluwatife Victoria Lawal, was absent at the pre-exbibition media interaction.

Patty Chidiac-Mastrogiannis, founder and director of Alexis Galleries, said the 8 female artists “were carefully chosen. I am very proud to showcase them, and I know it’s going to be a killer.”    

 The NUDUS exhibition is sponsored by Coca-Cola, Macallan, Bombay-Sappire, Mikano, Art-Cafe, Tiger, Aina Blankson Global, “The Guardian, Berol, Schweppes, Haier Thermocool, Nigeria Info and Cobranet.