Past
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Peju Alatise - Alafia
4 - 30 Apr 2022 We are pleased to present ‘ALAFIA’, a solo exhibition of works by interdisciplinary artist Peju Alatise opening April 4-30, 2022. Reflecting on recent happenings and current realities, the exhibition dialogues with the concept of wellness, sound health, and freedom. It examines the idea and understanding of wellness in our world... Read more -
The Essential Jimo Akolo
A Retrospective of Drawings and Paintings 15 Feb - 12 Mar 2022 kó Gallery is very delighted to present The Essential Jimo Akolo: A Retrospective of
Drawings and Paintings from 1961 to 2015.
For the first time in Lagos, kó will be presenting a rare Zaria Art School graduate of 1961, a
member of the Zaria Art Society. Considered by some scholars as a rebel of the “rebels”. Over
thirty-one drawings and paintings of the artist’s collection will be featured. The exhibition also has
works loaned from some private collectors in Nigeria that are also included in this show. In addition,
images of his early works in the collection of Bristol Museum, the University of Sussex, in Britain,
and Yemisi Shyllon Museum Nigeria will be included in the well-illustrated catalogue to give the art
community a rare glimpse into the artist’s creative oeuvre and his unspoken place on the stage of
contemporary Nigerian art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jimo Akolo (b. 1935)
Jimo Akolo is a retired professor of art education who combined art teaching, administration, and a
vibrant art career like any of his contemporaries.
Born in Egbe, Kogi State, Nigeria, Jimo Bola Akolo’s artworks focus on indigenous cultural
traditions, and the depiction of everyday life. Working predominantly as a painter, Akolo’s work is
influenced by designs and patterns reminiscent of Hausa architecture and art. Renowned for his
unwavering adherence to the principles of individual artistic freedom, Akolo deeply engages with
the enchanting Zaria city scenery, landscapes and its people with refreshing aesthetic, and
philosophical perspective. Other subjects of interest are horse riders at festivals, and at war, festive
dancers, sportsmen, all rendered in loose brushstrokes, yet intense colours. His drawings are
expressed in strong and bold contemplative lines.
Jimo Akolo studied under Dennis Duerden, an education officer in the Nigerian Colonial Service at
Keffi Government College. During this period, he started painting and was
included in the 1956 exhibition Keffi Boys at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Jimo attended the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology, and was a founding member
of the Zaria Art Society, along with Yusuf Grillo, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, Uche Okeke.
He later studied at the Hornsey College of Art in London, and Indiana State University in
Bloomington. In 1966, he joined the faculty at Ahmadu Bello University where he taught for over
three decades.
Akolo received Nigeria’s national Cultural Trophy and has participated in various exhibitions at the
Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery (London), National Gallery of Art (Nigeria), Nigerian Art Council,
second Havana Biennial (Cuba), Ohio State University Annual Symposium on African and West
(USA) among others.
Professor Jerry Buhari of the Department of Fine Art, Ahmadu Bello University is the curator of the
exhibition. Read more -
Chike Obeagu
Cogitations 30 Oct - 13 Nov 2021 Cogitations features the artist’s newest mixed-media collages formed through scraps of magazines, newspapers and waste fabrics. These large-scale canvases depict commonplace scenes which serve as metaphors for diverse issues in contemporary life. Chike Obeagu is a visual artist, curator and writer whose work explores the dualism of human nature and... Read more -
Uzo Egonu
Prints 18 Sep - 7 Oct 2021 Uzo Egonu was a Nigerian-born artist who settled in Britain in the 1940s, where he was based until his death in 1996. Working primarily in painting and printmaking, Uzo Egonu combined references from Igbo and European cultural traditions to form a unique modernist language. Egonu’s prints are characterised by an... Read more -
Busayo Lawal
Life in Asymmetry 7 - 26 Aug 2021 For more than two decades, Busayo Lawal has interrogated the conventions of visual vocabularies to challenge received notions of the time-space continuum, migration and power. In his first major exhibition in Nigeria titled Life in Asymmetry, Lawal has created a seminal body of work that is premised on his lifelong... Read more -
E.D. Adegoke
The Age of Dreams 7 - 26 Aug 2021 The works in E.D Adegoke’s The Age of Dreams are conceived in two broad categories: the first set which are formalised poses and less richly decorated than the second set, whose costumed figures suggest an elevation from literalism to the metaphorical. Rather than a calculated approach to centralise the “black... Read more -
Demola Ogunajo
Area Art 24 Jun - 15 Jul 2021 Demola Ogunajo is interested in the signs and symbols of his environment, transforming everyday experiences with a spectacular twist. Ogunajo depicts ordinary scenes with an otherworldly dimension, one of angels, astronauts and superheroes. His paintings are metaphors that examine the philosophical complexities of modern life, often with spiritual, religious or... Read more -
Ozioma Onuzulike
The New Nsukka School Series 29 Mar - 6 May 2021 Ozioma Onuzulike is a ceramics artist, poet and historian of African art and design whose studio work has largely focused on the historical and sociological roots of the political and socio-economic turmoil in Africa and their debilitating effects on daily living on the continent. He often explores the aesthetic, symbolic... Read more -
Eva Obodo: Recent Works
The New Nsukka School series 25 Feb - 18 Mar 2021 Eva Obodo creates mixed media artworks using jute and charcoal, which are formed by processes of wrapping, tying and bundling. Obodo’s compositions are used as metaphors to critique socio-political and economic structures that frame contemporary culture. This exhibition reflects a new direction in Obodo’s practice with his exploration of cloth,... Read more -
Ngozi-Omeje Ezema: Boundless Vases
The New Nsukka School series 28 Jan - 11 Feb 2021 Ngozi-Omeje Ezema represents the new generation of contemporary Nigerian ceramists who infuse modernist sensibilities into an age-old traditional art form, radically challenging long-established notions that locate ceramics within the limiting frame of its utilitarian function. Boundless Vases features recent ceramic art installations that present the artist’s ongoing exploration of the... Read more -
Edozie Anedu | Joseph Obanubi | Stephen Tayo
10 Dec 2020 - 9 Jan 2021 This exhibition includes new bodies of work that were developed during their residencies. While the global pandemic certainly created obstacles for the artist residencies at the Arthouse Foundation this year, these artists have developed new projects that explore the social and architectural fabric of the city, each experimenting with new... Read more -
Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu
Safron in the Desert 19 Nov - 3 Dec 2020 This new body of work was initiated during the artist’s residency in Dubai earlier this year, as kó’s representative for Art Dubai’s 2020 artist residency programme. While her residency in Dubai was cut short due to the global lockdown, Yadichinma has further developed the project for this solo exhibition. Yadichinma... Read more -
Thebe Phetogo
blackbody Composites 5 - 12 Nov 2020 Thebe Phetogo: blackbody Composites at kó, 5-12 November 2020 Read more -
Kadara Enyeasi
Is it not enough for the sea to be beautiful? 25 Sep - 10 Oct 2020 kó launches its inaugural exhibition by Kadara Enyeasi, titled Is it not enough for the sea to be beautiful? Read more
