By JAPHET ALAKAM

All is now set for the first historic exhibition by Nigeria trained painter, George Edozie at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. The show tagged, Shifting the Paradigm is designed to tear down aging but still prevalent concepts surrounding the creation, consumption and interpretation of contemporary art. It is scheduled to open on December 2, and run till February 26th, 2015. The exhibition which will focus on the culture and art of the Onitsha people will have as its special quest of honour Igwe Alfred Nnaemka Achebe, Agbogodi, The Obi of Onitsha.

The exhibition which is overseen by its new director,Babacar M’Bow is coming up after months of tumult, uncertainty about its future and an ongoing legal battle of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami.

George Edozie has always worked as a painter, in his paintings on canvas he normally applies raw colours on the cloth and works them with the knife. The play between surface, colour and texture is central to his work.

While George Edozie is not an expressionist, he shares a good number of the formal characteristics of the “fauvist” and “post-impressionist” painters at the turn of the 20th century: Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, Van Gogh. In different ways, these artists went beyond the manner in which impressionism focused on reproducing the impression caused by the physical world.

It will feature about 14 works, 7 paintings and 7 sculptures. Through the body of works, Edozie who is basically influenced by Onitsha Ado culture celebrates the rich culture, the traditional dieties and history of the city of Onitsha. One unique aspect of the works is that all the works are titled in Igbo, a good way of identifying with its root and telling the stories by ourselves. Some of the works include, The spirit came, a seven piece sculpture representing the seven parts of the Obis in Onitsha. Asanma, a mixed media painting depicting six different ladies with Agbongonma, a maiden spirit like the typical beauty pageant of the present time but the only different was that they are not skinny. Another work is the four faces of Amonyonma, showing the faces of the living and the dead. Obi Igboro, a village in Onitsha that produces many women which attract men to the village.

Speaking about the works, Mrs Chinwe Uwaise, who coordinates the Nigerian angle of the exhibition stated that George was chosen for the exhibition because he was the best that suites into the scheme. She said that the exhibition is a new opening for African artists to explore themselves on how they want the world to see them instead of allowing them to do it for us.

Curated by Nkiru Nzegwu, Professor of African Studies and Director of Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture, Department of African Studies, Binghamton University, New York who is a consultant to the Museum and also the owner of African House in US.For her “through form, color, design consciousness, and containment, artistic endeavor unleashes the embodied powers of life to dissolve blockages and remake reality”.

Babacar M’Bow, MOCA’s director, said he wants the exhibit to show that the city is moving forward despite the legal issues. “I think MOCA has a unique mission to document, preserve and present the local production,to become a real international center of art and culture, it has to entail our local artists. Nothing is global if it is not local.” M’Bow said.

“Shifting Paradigm,” which will feature the work of Nigerian painter George Edozie, will represent the Museum at Miami Art Fair in Basel. The museum also will host a Nollywood Film Festival, featuring films and discussions focused on the Nigerian film industry.