BY OSA AMADI

Some artists believe that watercolor is a medium slowly leaving the scene. Some of the reasons advanced for the lull include the difficulty involved in managing the medium, economy and commerce, and the high cost of materials used to produce works in watercolor – such as the paper, which are all imported. Every little mistake during work condemns this paper of which the cheapest is N1000.

Due to these challenges, students hardly use the watercolor medium, and where students don’t use a medium there will be hardly continuity.

But all those challenges have been surmounted by a group of 8 artists working in water colour medium. These artists – Tayo Adenaike, Sam Ovraiti, Lekan Onabanjo, Olu Ajayi, Kehinde Sanwo, Victor Obasuyi, and Ini Brown –  are going to be exhibiting 8 works each done in the tasking watercolor medium from April 1 – 30, 2018, at Adam & Eve, Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

The exhibition, titled The Content, Spring Edition, is being handled by two curators, Timi Balogun and Lekan Onabanjo who is also one of the exhibiting artists.

Speaking at a press briefing that announced the exhibition, Mr. Onabanjo said the artists and the exhibition were selected to revive interest in watercolor painting, and also to engineer interests and get people to begin to appreciate art on Lagos mainland given that Lagos Island has dominated art exhibitions and marketing for a long time in Lagos State. “This is a timely exhibition,” he said.

One of the participating artists, Sam Ovraiti, said “It’s an exhibition that promises a lot of surprises.”

The Harmattan Edition of Content art exhibition under the auspices of Adam & Eve held last year (2017) from October 15 – December 15 featured Francis Uduh, Juliet Ezenwa, Damola Adepoju, Olumide Oresegun, Ibe Ananaba, Emmanuel Stanley Dudu, and Josh Nmesirionye, with Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya, Sir Kolade Oshinowo, and Lekan Onabanjo as guest artists