Victor Ekpuk (review)

REVIEW VI CT OR EKPUK 18th St reet Arts Complex Sant a Monica, California Lagos Blues, 1998, acr yl i c on paper , cour t esy of t he ar t i st . Victor Ekpuk was t he only new thing happening at t he 18th Street Arts Complex in midtown Santa Monica in the evening of December 4, 1998, al though attendance at t he opening of his show was modest. Titled Songs, his show opened at the central Gallery of the complex. But in a hall nearby, a Dutch artist mounted his own works amidst murals and graffiti dedicated to loved ones who had died of AIDS. This hall was a thoroughfare to an audit orium where a Chicano performance artist deployed several media- legends on digi t al screen, music, mime- to dramatize aspects of Mexican- American relationship like border patrol, immigrant labor , and drug war with a touch of suicidal metaphor. The smoke- filled hall al most packed to t he rafters. The first 'African' artist to be resident at the complex, Ekpuk had arrived at t he 18th Street t he previous month to begin a two- month residence. He was a beneficiary of t he UNESCO- ASCHBERG bursaries for artists, and t he residency, also supported by t he Rockefeller Foundation and t he 18th Street Arts Complex Int ernat ional Circle, gave him a studio apartment and a monthly stipend for t he duration of his stay. The show was meant to introduce his work to artists and art patrons on t he Los Angeles- Santa Monica axis. Songs was excerpted from what the artist called t he "Manuscript Series" of his largely new oeuvre. To someone f amiliar with t he works what was im m ediately striking about them was not painstaking drawing. But apart from the artist and this writer, everyone in the hall viewed each painting with genuine curiosity. Ekpuk's formal sources are t he symbols of insibidi, t he pictographic writing common among the Ejagham and Ibibio people in Southeastern Nigeria. When he came to t he notice of tagos art critics in t he early 90s it was through his illustrations on t he pages of the newspapers in t he Lagos Dai l y Ti m es st able, and t he critic Toyin Akinosho t hought his drawings were imaginative apropos marvelous realism . But he created some stir during the May 1993 exhibition tagged "The Best of l i e. " The show was held at Signature Gallery in Ikoyi, Lagos, f eaturing works of graduates of t he Fine Arts department of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria. Trained under such artist- teachers as Moyo Okediji, Babatunde Lawal, Bolaji Campbell, the Ife graduates at t hat ex hibition (Sewhenu Akran, Kunle Filani, Don Akatakpo, Wole Lagunju, etc.) brought to t he fore again t he powerful influence of Yoruba iconography t h eorized as ona in t he hey- day of the nowdefunct j our nal, Kurio Africana. Since t hat ex hibition, Ekpuk has had several soloandgroupshowsin Lagos. Henumbers among t he more visible young artists in Nigeria at t he moment, and one with confidence in his drawing. The nsibidi ideographs t hat dom inate his works represent an attempt to abst ract ideasfrom natural objects, and return these as concepts symbolized by basic shapes or lines. Ekpuk has at tempted a theory around this in an i n t erview* . Thus he metaphorizes decay with fish skeletons, prosperity with a car. But they stretch to accommodate aesthetic demands, t oo; in fact , t he need to create a lucid picture with t he infinitude of shapes appears basic. They evoke shapes t hat Okediji beat into t he metal railing atop t he Conference Center of OAU at Ile- Ife, but t hat ex planation is part ial. An exploration of these motifs in his black and white drawings (as in t he ambitious Pr i soner of Consc i enc e) leaves the gesture severely limited. Although not a colorist, Ekpuk is certainly confident with colors , especially the earth colors. (Here is another legacy of t he Ona School). Obiora...