By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

Artist, Dauda Mohammed brings the beauty of creativity out of two-wheeler themes of 3-dimensional texture in his solo art exhibition titled Toys for Troys, showing from September 2-12, 2023, at Signature Beyond Art Gallery, 107, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos Island.

With a background in science, Mohammed’s self-taught artistic skills provide great depth for his choice of themes, applying a mix of non-conventional medium and acrylic to create exceptional texturised art.

Inspired by the ancient Greek’s legendary city, Troy, and its powerful people, Mohammed’s Toys for Troys is an exhibition the artist hopes to use in energising art appreciation in a fresh way. Interestingly, Mohammed finds the right outlet in Signature Beyond, a gallery with pedigree of showing art of uncommon themes and textures.

Among the pieces to be on display during the Toys for Troys exhibition are mixed media rendered in wood nails on board, with automobile paints and acrylic. In the works, Mohammed openly celebrates the popular two-wheeler, Harley Davidson. But as an artistic venture, the exhibition brings the beauty of creativity, sharing the excitement of motorcycle enthusiasts via visual rendition. For example, in one of the pieces titled ‘A day on a Harley’, Mohammed captures a rider making a thrilling bend and asserting the artist’s celebration of the men on two-wheeler machines.

Like the men of the legendary Greek Troy city who built great things and performed herculean tasks, Mohammed, in this exhibition appropriates the strength of those ancient men in 21st century. The artist depicts ‘toys’ for the men on two-wheelers. Signature Beyond Art Gallery noted that the theme of the exhibition gives instances of fabricated machines for warriors.

“In my work, I aim to explore themes of various dynamic subjects with five or more colours using 3-dimensional objects like wood nails, pushpins, cotton buds, screw, etc., to make something digital,” Mohammed says. “I enjoy making work that requires a physical proximity, working from intangible to the tangible by invoking these mediums to generate a dialogue that has something to do with the effort, repetition, focus, discipline, absurdity and love that went into its making.”

 A ‘Foreword’ of the exhibition explains the theme as giving instances of fabricated machines for warriors. “The ancient Greek, from where the artist got his inspiration, is known for conquest and heroism. Such major warriors like Hector and Archilles of Troy of the ancient Greek are clear examples of human capability, skills, and strategies from which the machines depicted in the exhibition derive inspiration.”

There are quite a number of takeaways for art lovers from Mohammed’s Toys for Troys. Such lessons include the ability to show that creativity is as important as invention itself of which Mohammed has done by celebrating the Harley Davidson bikes in art form. More importantly, where talent is never enough, the gift of art comes with excellent creations. “In this context, the artist allows himself to experience series of events, imaginations, and motivations to be inspired by them for his own creations.” It was noted that for a lifetime in nurturing experience, along being technology smart, Mohammed’s capability of applying coloured screws and nails is so magnificent in technicality, process, and methods, are among his creative strength.

“I enjoy when you look at the medium at close range seeing the homogeneous arrangement of the medium clearly as an object and when observe from afar seeing the medium as image,” Mohammed says. “My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the work from close range also from a distance and feel something in the process.”

 Dauda Ademola Mohammed was born in Jos, Nigeria in 1974, and holds a degree in Biochemistry from university of Ilorin. He also earned a certificate in Graphics and 3d Animation from Aptech (Arena Multimedia)

Mohammed is a self-taught artist who spent a period of 12 years in the banking industry before leaving in 2015 to concentrate on art, which he does passionately. He works in a variety of media including painting and drawing with acrylic and oil, until recently when he focused on using 3-dimensional objects. Among his favourite materials are cotton buds, pushpins, screw, nails, bottle tops, drilling on woods and plastics to make amazing artworks.

 Mohammed’s work combines creativity along with hours of diligent application using some computer graphic applications and Photoshop. He breaks an image down to a very low resolution and forces the computer to make the image out of only five colours (red, blue, yellow, black and white), and uses a grid map to show where to stick the object row by row. At first glance, the artwork appears to be a low-resolution portrait, but upon closer inspection, viewers can see each piece is made of thousands of coloured objects.

Mohammed draws his inspiration from the love he has for Pointillism, Mosaics and 3-D art. He has work for several organisations and individuals using these objects in promoting their brands. One of such major projects is the billboard of Lasena bottled Water portrait hung on their building at Ogba near county Hospital. He used 10,000 yellow, red, blue, black and white recycled bottle tops to make this amazing (Billboard) with dimension of 20ft x 8ft.

Mohammed has participated in Signature Beyond’s Sogal art auction from 2019 till date.

PIC CAPTION

‘A day on a Harley’ (1.5-inch wood nails on board, automobile paints and acrylic finish, 76×46.5 inches), by Dauda Mohammed.