Abidemi Olowonira
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My works are engaged in a dialectic discourse, which finds grounding in transcultural dynamics, a notion that enables me to frolic in the nerves of globalism, as both migrant and human, while using my works as a platform to narrate my story within a larger story. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, with its rich history of sculptures and contemporary regenerative arts, I was able to get my first art lessons in my grandma’s tie and dye workshop. The experiences I have absorbed in my travels have also impressed upon me not only a wide range of sensibilities but a trove of material to use when conveying my artistic vision: living in Texas, I was exposed to leather as a medium of expression while working as a gun-holster designer. Then, during my travels, I was exposed to both Chinese and Arabic calligraphy in the two and a half years I spent in Central Asia and the Middle East. Ultimately, my goal is to explore the concept of storytelling through the nuances of modernity while exploiting space, shapes, and voids, and enhancing these elements with the luminosity of light, to create a metaphors around the human experiences. I intend to continue using leather, a pliable and durable material, to promulgate—however subtle that might be—a version of a modernist concept. My intention is to layer and infuse this concept with my multidimensional outlook.
- Abidemi Olowonira is a Nigerian-born assemblage artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA and MFA in Houston, Texas. His work has been shown around the world, including the Sika Art Fair in Dubai and the Guangzhou Museum of Fine Arts in China, and in 2019 was awarded the Elle Decor Designer of the Year Award for his collaboration with luxury rug maker Kyle Bunting. Largely utilizing recycled hides in his work, Abidemi Olowonira explores the nuances of oral histories and mythologies carried down through generations. In addition, he studies the dissemination of mythologies from varying cultures, finding startling similarities. Olowonira also uses his work to navigate cultural complexity such as heritage and displacement. He is currently investigating the dynamically complex Yoruba culture and its migration and influences in the diaspora.
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Website: abidemi.art
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