The relegation of the study of History as a subject to the background portends great danger for the country especially, the younger ones. How will they get to know their past in order to plan for the future? According to curator Ziggi Golding,”Documenting and archiving culture is the key to understanding origins and thus developing a sense of identity”.

In line with that, a lawyer and artist, Tayo Ayelowo is set to contribute her quota to the knowledge of the past with her first solo exhibition tagged Standing Before Kings, a pastel portrait paintings of prominent Traditional Rulers in Nigeria.

Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe

In the exhibition which is scheduled to open on 26th November and run to 12th December 2016 at Mercedes Center, 3rd Roundabout, Lekki Lagos, the self trained artist who is always fascinated by the regalia of kings all over the world uses faces of powerful Nigerian monarchs to reflect the dignity that comes with the office of a king, the attires, beads, crowns etc.

The exhibition which is courtesy of a series of research that took the artist to many places will afford Nigerians especially school children the opportunity to know most of the traditional rulers and their impact in the society.

Featuring about 22 large pastel and very impressive portrait paintings that capture easily the likeness of the royal personages. She strongly presents, as they emerge from dark vacuums, their skilfully moulded facial features matched only by their rich apparel all described in minute detail.

A closer view of the works shows the fantastic and fascinating images taken from different ethnicregions in Nigeria that brings people closer with the traditional rulers. Some of them include, Oba Rilwan Akiolu 1, Oba of Lagos, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan, Ogunwusi Ojaja11, Awujale of Ijebu, Oba Sikiru Adetona, Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu, Oba of Benin, Oba Eware II,  Emir of Kano, HRM Sanusi Lamidi Sanusi, Sultan of Sokoto, HRM Sa’adu Abubakar, Obong of Calabar, HRM Bassey Ekpo Bassey 11, Olu of Warri HRM Ogiame Ikemwoli 1, Obi of Onitsha, Obi Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, Agbogodi and many others.

Speaking about the exhibition, Oliver Enwonwu, SNA president said, “Ayelowo’s work connotes authoritarianism, as well as her choice of pastels, which demands not only closeness to but also a tactile relationship with her medium.”

Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe

In her statement, Ayelowo who charged Nigerians to be proud of their traditional rulers as done in other climes said, “my work explores the relationship between visual arts and on how it stimulates the senses. My paintings are as a result of passion for pictorial gravity and accumulated expression of inspirations.

Each and every piece of my paintings is laced with undercurrents of emotion, change and movements. Therefore, most of my work may conform to reality. I worked hard to paint the Traditional Rulers in such a way that it should communicate both to me and to others about the splendor buried deep in tradition and culture.”

In all, Ayelowo’s portraits together form an important part of Nigeria’s history, vestiges of a former age, a rich cultural past that all must imitate, away from the present decadent society, governed by a political class that line their pockets with ill-gotten wealth while the populace remains impoverished.