Nigeria Will Make Its Debut at the 2017 Venice Art Biennale
LAGOS, Nigeria - It's about time is the only answer to the quickly spreading hashtag #HowAboutNOW regarding Nigeria's inclusion in the 57-year old Biennale Arte 2017 come this May. A globally respected art festival, the Venice Biennale incorporates artists from over 85 countries across painting, photography, installation, sculpture, and performance.
Commissioned by Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and directed by lead curator Adenrele Sonariwo, the Nigeria exhibition will show three artists: sculptor Peju Alatise, painter Victor Ehikhamenor, and performance artist Qudus Onikeku. According to NigeriaInVenice, Alatise will "showcase a large-scale, life-size installation that explores the state of the girl child and transports her to an imagined future." Ehikhamenor just off an exhibition at the 2016 Dakart Biennale in Senegal and a solo show at the Gallery of African Art, London at the 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair will present an installation "Biography of the Forgotten." No stranger to the fashion industry, Ehikhamenor has historically lent his designs in collaboration with fellow Nigerian designer Ituen Basi. Onikeku will reveal a spectacular work of Acro-dance, a dance fusion melding acrobatics, traditional Yoruba culture, and other diaspora dance styles.
Other presenting African nations include: Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and South Africa.
