By McPhilips Nwachukwu

As the 5th edition of the Lagos based ArtHouse Contemporary kicks off on Monday 22nd, November, 2010 at  five star event venue, the  Civic Centre, one troubled issue concerning the debate about the  inclusion of photography as one component of the nation’s contemporary art, would have been solved permanently.

In the last few years, polyvalent  filmmaker, photojournalist and art critic, Tam Fiofori has pursued the debate, by  engaging the National Gallery of Arts, custodians of Contemporary Nigerian arts to include photography as part of the collections of  the nation’s contemporary arts.

Fiofori’s argument has been hinged on the fact that a man by name JJ Green, a Niger Delta born photographer  was according to him, said to have  documented as far back as the 18th century the  dethronement of Oba Ovonramwen of Benin in 1897 by the British Imperial Forces.

Work by Kelechi Amadi Obi

Fiofori’s frontal debate has however achieved some  results as photography has  been allocated  exhibition spaces at both the second editions of Lagos ArtExpo , a collaborative project of the National Gallery of Arts and  Association of Gallery Owners of Nigeria, AGAN and ARESUVA.

But the final victory that can be said to have acceded to this long drawn debate would be the inclusion of the photographic works of Pa JD Ojeikere and his children contemporaries, George Oshodi and lawyer turned photographer, Kelechi Amadi-Obi in the  ArtHouse Contemporary international reckoning auction sales for this December season.

The importance of this  inclusion is  also hinged on the fact that, ArtHouse Contemporary’s modest effort at creating a third tier market for contemporary African visual art market in 2007 has resulted in the birth of two other  international art auctions in London and America, specifically targeted at selling African contemporary arts.

Also to make this 5th edition worthy of buyers  time and delight is the inclusion of Demas Nwoko,Akionola Lesekan and Ghanaian Edmund Tetteh.

Renowned artist, Demas Nwoko, one of the notable names among the revolutionary Zarianists is little known as a visual artist that worked in the media of painting and sculpture, but more as an achitect,whose signature is  registered across all nooks and crannies of the nation in most of the historic  architectural master pieces that he designed and executed.

But to the   surprise of many, and to beauty of the present exhibition, the organizers of the auction addressing the Press last week through, Adetiya ,Kavita Chellerams  and Nana Sonoiki revealed the inclusion of a wonderful sculptural piece titled; The Wise Man from Demas Nwoko’s collection.

According to the Chellerams,” Demas  is one of the founding members of the Zaria Arts Society, whose works we have not been privileged enough to present to the secondary art market. After his graduation in 1961, he was principally involved in other creative disciplines- particularly architecture, for which he is well known. Because of this , his works are very few and hard to come by.”

Continuing, they added that “ on offer are 118 lots of paintings, sculptures, mixed media works, prints and photographs by well known and emerging artists. This number tallies to the largest total number of works on sale in an ArtHouse auction.”

Other artists expected to feature in the present  auction are : Sokari Douglas, Idowu Otun, Soly Cisse of Senegal,Kelani Abass, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Ben Osawe, El Anatsui, Chidi Kwubiri, Peju Alitse and Ben Osaghae.

According to the Chellerams,”5 additional lots will be put for sale to charitably benefit the Calabar Women and Children Hospital.” To support this project, it was further revealed that  photo artist, George Oshodi and Rom Isichei generously donated their works.

ArtHouse Contemporary was founded by Kavita Chelleram in 2007 to mainly establish a regular venue for the sale of fine Nigerian and West African arts. Since inception, the project has done fairly well. The previous fourth edition made a total sale, including buyer’s premium of 69,333,000 and 84 out of the 106 lots sold constituting to about 79% successful outing. The third auction made a total sale of 60,070,000 with 76% of the works sold.

The sale and open-for-public viewing that will precede the auction, will take place at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island on Saturday, 20th November between 10am and 4pm, Sunday the 21st, from 12 to 6 pm and Monday, the 22nd of November, from 10am to 1 pm.