Workshops
2023
July
Fluidity Workshop
The practical art workshop is designed around the theme of Art Bridge Project’s ongoing group exhibition themed “Fluidity”. The exhibition explores the constant transformation of life, and features a diverse range of artworks that delve into the notion of flow and movement as it permeates every aspect of our lives. Furthermore, the exhibition positions the medium as the message, emphasising the intricate techniques employed by each artist and their exploration of materials that require tactile manipulation. The workshop featured participants from the Asisat Oshoala Academy.
2022 - 2023
November - February
Statues Also Breathe
A series of educational programs and school visits designed to accompany Prune Nourry’s exhibition “Statues Also Live”. We welcomed over 277 students from Junior and Secondary Schools across Lagos state during the duration of the exhibition. The educational program provided a special opportunity for students and teachers to deepen their understanding of art and consider ways to strengthen critical thinking and broaden life experiences within the context of Nourry’s exhibition. The students reflected on the various themes embedded in this exhibition and engaged in practical creative workshops. Statues Also Breathe was a collaborative project/exhibition between Prune Nourry and students of Obafemi Awolowo University with focus on the tragic Chibok girls abduction and the importance of empowering the girl child.
Educational Programme Coordinator: Tony Agbapuonwu / Art Bridge Project
Art Educator: Tolulope Ami-williams
Assistants: Timilehin Aríkàwe and Justina Ify
Photographers: Kehinde Adesanya and Fuad
2022
September
Everything You Imagine Is Real: Creative Writing Workshop
In response to Chukwudubem Ukaigwe’s poetic practice which engages with universal aspects of life, Black lived experiences and moving beyond one’s locality, the creative writing workshop explores what true liberation looks like for a new generation of Nigerians who desire an existence outside of the realities of classism, ethnic conflict, neo-colonialism and the lack of government intervention in protecting individual freedoms and improving the nation. Participants are invited to reflect on themes of equity, community, collective consciousness and reimagine their most pressing national issue to capture the hope for a new Nigeria and an utopian society. In doing this, participants tap into the power of rewriting the Nigerian story and manifest the need for social change.
2018
June
Lens Unveiled: Photography Portfolio Review with Abraham Oghobase and Medina Dugger
Lens Unveiled aims to unravel the components of a photographic lens—viewing the lens as a photographer’s third eye and a window to mystery. As an integral part of the camera and human structure, the lens either modifies or alienates our vision.
The camera is a device of dependence; it makes real what one is experiencing, ensuring it doesn’t fade. Photography has become one of the principal tools or devices for experiencing something or giving an appearance of participation. Our very sense of situation is articulated by the camera’s intervention, as we document sequences of consumption.
Photography is beyond focusing your lens on a subject and executing a shot. In the process of stilling moments - telling stories, photography mirrors reality and distorts preconceived notions. It provides most of the knowledge people have about the past and the reach of the present. Photography supplies the presence of ghostly traces and gives people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, aiding in possession of the space in which they are insecure.
Irrespective of the genre of photography, the end result (i.e image captured) should sufficiently stand still; commanding authority, interest and seductiveness. Images are a form of immortality, prolonging the existence of the subject or event captured. Most photographers produce great images but lack a sense of direction and visual language in their work.
2017
December
Beyond The Canvas with Gerald Chukwuma
Art Bridge Project is pleased to present the roundup session of the series Beyond The Canvas with Gerald Chukwuma. We'll be discussing experimenting as an artist, trying unconventional mediums and being an entrepreneur as an artist.
Gerald Chukwuma is an experimental and mixed-media artist noted for his intricately crafted wood-slate sculptures. Using a multitude of techniques, his unique approach to burning, chiseling, and painting common materials captures a richly layered history embedded with personal and political meaning. In his work spanning paintings, sculptures and collage, Chukwuma explores migration as a constant process of transformation and reinvention. Considering the implications of globalisation on his local community, Chukwuma transforms everyday materials to render new stories of Nigeria’s socio-political landscape. The artist is drawn to the movements of people through voluntary and forced migration as a vital stage in the progress of our collective humanity. This sense of optimism imbues his work with playfully illustrative characters drawn from a wide variety of visual forms present in Nigeria’s deep cultural history.
2017
December
Beyond The Canvas with Isaac Emokpae
Join us on the 15th of December, 2017, for an interactive session with Isaac Emokpae. This is in line with our theme for this, Beyond The Canvas, a campaign created to expand the definition of art and break limitations by the canvas.
Isaac Emokpae is a contemporary Nigerian visual artist and photographer; working in various mediums across stained glass pieces and acrylic painting, dwelling primarily on themes of duality. The symposium with Isaac Emokpae is in conjunction with his ongoing exhibition, Transparent showing at Rele Gallery. The exhibition features recent works by the artist paying homage to the fatherly figures- both earthly and divine- who have played significant roles and spurred the artist on his creative journey. TRANSPARENT is one-part ministration and one-part an avenue to ascribe gratitude. In the exhibition featuring stained glass pieces, the artist holds a primary aim to inspire its visitors of their potential to project brilliant imageries- in stories and in way of living; just as the stained glass pieces on view will do.
2017
October
Storytelling: Reconstructing Narratives & Embracing Roots with Victor Ehikhamenor
Art Bridge Project is pleased to present an interactive studio session & visit with artist Victor Ehikhamenor themed - Storytelling: Reconstructing Narratives & Embracing Roots. This experience offers a journey into the artistic career and events that led to the artist's present stage. Taking place at his studio, participants will get the opportunity to learn from Ehikhamenor’s knowledge; raising conversations and opening up about certain challenges that seem impossible.
Victor Ehikhamenor is a multi-faceted artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, as well as unique perforated works on paper. Hailing from the historic seat of the Benin Empire, he draws inspiration from the dual aesthetic and spiritual traditions which infused his upbringing, using imagery and symbolism from both Edo traditional religion and Catholicism. His signature patterning is a frenetic mélange of gestural abstraction and stylised forms revealing faces, objects and writing systems. This patterning is used in everything from paintings to photographs to immersive installations, producing a hypnotic experience, a sense of both meditative repetition and an ongoing narrative being told.
2017
June
Gallery Visit and Interactive Session with Ayoola Gbolahan
Art Bridge Project is pleased to present an interactive session with Ayoola Gbolahan, at Rele Gallery. This is in view of his ongoing solo exhibition at the gallery. Ayoola Gbolahan has had a prolific career as an artist spanning over two decades, his art is characterized by strong strokes and evocative narratives; delving into human study and philosophy of life.
“My work as pertaining art usually depicts a portrait of my encounter, relationship and experience with the rest of creation- both the tangible and intangible. I am present somewhere in all my works as one who has navigated through these spaces as an on-looker. My attempt at filling a canvas also stands as a way of documenting experiences with people and environments. These forms are translated to images in dreams and my dreams are the sketches of my paintings. It has been so since I made my first drawing as a six years old. A painting for me is a culmination of emotions-pain, love, joy, curiosity of the unknown; experiences, relationships, struggles, victories; engagements with human beings; actions and consciousness. Everything about art is spiritual and powerful to me. Hence, art has the power to influence minds. After all, I am just an artist who knows how to dream and draw, if dreams beget reality. In its spirituality, I let my observations speak to me; I listen and I bare them in an impressionable message with an ambition to be translated by another observer who is willing to listen.”, - Ayoola Gbolahan
2017
May
Moving Dots: Artists’ Talk and Workshop with Raquel Van Haver and Jeremiah Quarshie
We are delighted to present 'Moving Dots: Artists’ Talk and Workshop', in conjunction with African Artists' Foundation (AAF). The symposium will be with the present artists-in-residence at AAF, Raquel Van Haver and Jeremiah Quarshie.
Jeremiah Quarshie is a hyper-realistic artist whose paintings explore the boundaries between physical and digital production; considering the construction of imagery, his work investigates the nature of art itself. Through detailed portraiture, emphasizing the connectedness between people otherwise divided by social, economic or geographical conditions, Quarshie reveals an acute social awareness.
Raquel van Haver works on burlap, often combining oil paint, charcoal, gypsum, newspaper and ash in heavily textured compositions. Her paintings offer snapshots of daily life in the South-East of Amsterdam, Netherlands, where the artist lives and works. She is interested in race and identity, drawing from African, Western, Caribbean and Latin American cultures within her direct neighborhood. The work is raw and masculine, at times monumental and energetic, at others dark and ominous. Negotiations between ‘self’ and ‘other’ appear as recurring themes. The artist skilfully fuses great traditions of painting and the more contemporary practices of graffiti in her surroundings.
2017
April
Gallery Visit and Interactive Session with Olu Amoda
Join us for a gallery visit and interactive session with Olu Amoda, at Art Twenty One. Olu Amoda has worked consistently over the past three decades to create a sculptural language that has unique character and beauty. Working as a sculptor, muralist, furniture designer, and multimedia artist, Amoda is best known for using repurposed materials found from the detritus of consumer culture. His works often incorporate rusty nails, metal plates, bolts, pipes, and rods, that are welded together to create figures, animals, flora and ambiguous forms. Amoda uses these materials to explore socio-political issues relating to Nigerian culture today, from sex, politics, race and conflict to consumerism and economic distribution.