By Mike Ebonugwo & Japhet Alakam

IT is not often you get to hear or read about a husband and wife art partnership, especially one inspired and nurtured by mutual love, creative affiliation and geared towards bringing a breath of fresh air to the increasingly vibrant Nigerian exhibition scene.

But from July 13, 2013, art lovers and collectors will have the opportunity of meeting and connecting with Emmanuel and Angela Isiuwe when the couple’s joint art exhibition titled ‘Our World Human and Equestrian Life’ will open at the Didi Museum, Victoria Island, Lagos. The husband and wife exhibition which will be the first of its kind will run till July 27.

Emmanuel and Angela, whose  love journey started all the way from Auchi Polytechnic 21 years ago when they were students before it blossomed into a marriage, are set to take art  patrons, collectors and lovers from all walks of life to a new concept of art as they unveil the rich collection of their creative endeavours at the exhibition.

*Future, one of the works by Emmanuel Isiuwe

Statement of appeal: Through the about 50 works of paintings in mixed media on display,  the couple will be making a strong statement of appeal for people to go back to the nature since in their view, “everything in life is derived from nature.”

In appraising the artistic collections on display, visitors will most likely discover that the charming couple do not only enjoy marital relationship, but also share creative energy and intuition which have spawned some mixture of works which most art connoisseurs are sure to find intrinsically appealing and therefore compelling acquisitions.

But in spite of the strong influence which marital union has played in their art partnership, husband and wife also retain their individual identities as they express their artistic feelings through different genres of painting. For instance, Angela whose art is said to be very peculiar and unique, and with a style deeply rooted in the abstraction tradition, favours both paper and canvas in expressing her artistic skill .

Of particular interest is her work with colour on paper which really brings out her power and skill as an abstraction painter in the tradition of Piet Mondrian(1872-1944), Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky, (1866-1944), the joint fathers and exponents of abstraction early in the 20th century.

Her works on canvas mainly depict the female forms, particularly the female anatomy in semi-abstraction; her paper works depict pure abstract forms of objects and female forms, a reason for which her art has also been described as being very femine-centric.

Though her paper works

appear rather simplistic, a very close examination will reveal that they are very carefully conceived and executed, manifesting deft masterstrokes. The forms in her paper works are generally organic and curvilinear.

For Emmanuel,  who has been painting like his contemporaries of the 1950s generation, but has made a fundamental detour from this as his recent work is a slight departure from contemporary artistic focus and preoccupation.

Here, after  over five years of research, the Auchi Polytechnic trained painter will showcase a different form of painting with horses as his main motifs, a new art form different from the various moods and poses obtainable in current Nigerian art. Works of the contemporary artists from Aina Onabolu to date have been solely concerned with depicting Nigerians, their everyday life, arts and culture.

Painting plants and animals is something which has not been of interest to Nigerian artists of all generations. They hardly favour  roses, lilies, sunflowers, pure landscapes, dogs, lions, etc as motifs for their paintings and sculptural works as artists in other parts of the world, especially Europe and America, have done for ages and are still doing even today.

According to Emmanuel: “Human and Equestrian life is just basically about the world we live in right now. Equestrian life represents the horses; it is showing us that everything in life is actually gotten from nature. Humanity has often times derived inspiration from nature.

The horses we are seeing today are these cars we are riding tnow; they have only been transformed into cars. So in a way we’re still riding horses,  even the cars are now being measured in horsepower. So we have to go back to nature. That is where the theme came from.”

The artist who described

the event as a mini-solo, said: “I am not like  a regular artist, I have been practicing since 1992, so I just want to turn out good art pieces.” And the message is simply this: “I think it will be very interesting that there is a new birth of art.  It will not be like the regular exhibitions that people do. The new concept I am adding is something that is different from the normal everyday thing , not just like the normal Durbar riding that they do.”

On his marriage to Angela in relation to their shared interest in painting, he said: “It has been a very interesting affair, especially with a wife who is into the same business. She is a tolerant person, she’s just God’s gift to me.”

Digging deep

Speaking about the exhibition, renowned art collector and founder of Treasure House Fine Arts, Olisehinde Odimayo who is thrilled by the works of the couple said “Nigeria is blessed with many talents, but the fact remains that they have not been digging deep ,so the effort of the young art couple is rewarding because they(Nigerians) will see something very refreshing”

Continuing he stated “Our world-Human and Equestrian Life is about the artistic and harmonious life of a family of painters, who have made art their calling and who on this occasion once again remind us of the benefit and essence of human and equestrian lives in our world.”

Emmanuel and Angela  are also appreciative of the encouragement and support they have received from Profs Ebun and John Pepper Clark and Vanguard publisher, Mr Sam Amuka.