Oliver Enwonwu | Painter

Artist Statement:

With portraiture playing a huge part in my oeuvre, my art interrogates the complex layers of history between the African continent and the West. Here, I address the near absence of Black personages in accounts of Western art history by adapting 16^th century Old Masters’ modes of representation and techniques of painting. Comprising mainly the ‘Black Victoria’, ‘Signares’, ‘Belle of Senegal’, and ‘Wanderers’ series, my portraits are of subjects not always known personally to me and are often idealistic; completely invented or recalled from memory.

‘Black Victoria’ focuses on Black cultural identity in the Victorian era. Here, the women appear confident, their gaze remarkedly self-contained. Closely related are the ‘Signares’ and the ‘Belle of Senegal’, which deal conversely with the effects of European Imperialism in Francophone West Africa. Significantly, the former explores how the Mulatto French-African women of the Island of Gorée and the city of Saint Louis in French Senegal negotiated their identity in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The latter category engages present-day women of Senegal, chronicling their increasing hybridity that absorbs and transforms global fashion trends yet retains the best aspects of their culture. In a celebration of the African woman, both series are united in the handling of form and rhythm beneath the large volume of apparel, jewelry and adornment. The network of lines strewn across the almost corrugated faces of the Tuaregs in ‘The Wanderers’, are evidence of their far-flung travels that dissolve boundaries and conflate notions of time and space. The lines are also a metaphor for their migratory experiences along trodden paths, and more importantly, the history of trade relations between Africa and Europe.

Together the portraits underscore our struggles to negotiate our postcolonial identities. Unabashed and confident, yet inviting and warm, the subjects signal “hope” for a rising continent amidst prevailing negative stereotypes and narratives.

In tribute to my late father, my incursion into the metaphysical is marked by my series based on contemporary interpretations of traditional African dance and the Onitsha-Igbo masquerade pantheon. Two dominant strains characterize the masquerades; the graceful female Agbogho-mmuo and the more aggressive and acrobatic male Ogolo. My chief interest lies not in the decorative qualities of their costume but in the rhythmic movement and spirituality of their dance, as well as in their role in bridging the spirit and physical worlds.

This thrust is accentuated and provides a close link with the theme ‘Unity, Hope and Love’ when one considers that in Africa, masquerades are representative of our ancestors and emerge at festive occasions to unite, celebrate and guide those they left behind. These broader notions of unity speak directly to universal concepts of family. To lend weight to this assertion, the dancer who wears the mask is often well known to the community but is immediately transfigured into a spiritual realm when he adorns it.

Learn more about Oliver Enwonwu.