kó at 1-54 New York: May 18-21, 2023

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1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
New York
Booth 15

Adébayo Bolaji
Mobolaji Ogunrosoye
Ozioma Onuzulike

May 18-21, 2023

Manhattanville Factory District, 439 W 127th Street, New York, NY

kó is pleased to participate at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York. This presentation will showcase painting, collage, and ceramic artworks by Adébayo Bolaji, Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, and Ozioma Onuzulike.

Adébayo Bolaji (b. 1983, UK) is a British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist whose paintings reflect on the process and narrative of change, examining questions of identity, power, and cultural history. Bolaji adopts a mixed-media practice featuring bold colors and geometric abstraction alongside elements of figuration. Bolaji’s paintings adopt a metaphorical language that reflects on the physiological and the social. His work references history, anthropology, religion, and popular culture. For 1-54 New York, Bolaji presents two new mixed paintings, incorporating acrylic, spray paint, and oil pastel.

Mobolaji Ogunrosoye (Nigeria, b. 1991) uses the distortion of photography and collage to explore ideas around perception. Her practice revolves around ideation and exploring the different ways in which images of the female body may be distorted In the Portraits series, Ogunrosoye creates multi-layer collages, incorporating a process of burning and cutting to create depth in revealing underlaying layers of images. The series addresses selfhood, body image, and the impact of societal influences on personal identity as it is related to Nigerian women.

Ozioma Onuzulike (b. 1972, Achi, Enugu State, Nigeria) creates large-scale ceramic installations that hang like tapestries, formed from thousands of ceramic palm kernel beads, terracotta and copper rings, and natural palm kernel shells. He explores the aesthetic, symbolic and metaphorical nature of the clay-working processes – pounding, crushing, hammering, wedging, grinding, cutting, pinching, punching, perforating, burning, and firing. Adopting the laborious process of firing the materials through multiple kilns, each firing creates unique colors and textures in transforming the clay, oxides, glazes and recycled glass. In his Bead series, Onuzulike likens the palm kernel shells to the history of colonialism as a symbol of currency, representing the continuing imbalance in political relations between Africa and the West.