A. Omotayo (Tayo) Adenaike is associated with the Nsukka Group of artists who were teachers, students or both at the University of Nsukka, Nigeria. They were known to incorporate the Igbo women's traditional art form, uli, into an aesthetic, most notably in the use of line along with negative and positive spaces. More recently, artists such as Adenaike have developed a visual language with the assistance of nsibidi that expresses a highly personalized philosophy about life, art, and meaning. Working primarily in watercolors, Adenaike adapts his training at Nsukka into a higly personalized style, where organic forms suggest emotional and imaginative psychological spaces. His use of nsibidi brings a hint of representation into an abstract realm where color and space rule. Inspired by his Yoruba childhood and life experience, Adenaike's work is topical and at times deeply personal, with subconscious elements.
Description:
Watercolor painting on paper, with colors of white and red predominating, with some blue. The central motif is a face placed in a white ring that is placed in a larger red square which itself is placed in an even larger white square. At the bottom are a series of linear motifs, probably uli designs.
Provenance:
Purchased from the artist, -- to 1999
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