Obinna Makata: Metahistories 

African Artists' Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria

September 14 - September 30, 2012 

 

 

As curator for Obinna Makata: Metahistories, I organized the first solo exhibition of the Nigerian artist on behalf of the African Artists' Foundation. 

 

The African Artists' Foundation Gallery is proud to present Metahistories, the first solo exhibition of Obinna Makata. Makata's mixed media collages incorporate diverse visual elements, such as ink drawing and cut fabric, to form a combination of ambiguous bodies and intricately designed patterns. Makata describes his collages as “broken pieces of African culture”, a response to the omnipresence of foreign influence that continues to threaten traditional value systems and artistic processes that are unique to the Continent. If Makata's collages immediately call to mind the stereotypical classifications of "African" art, with their geographically specific patterns, colours, and elongated figures so common in what Western art institutions not so long ago termed "Primitive" art, they are unabashedly conscious of their designation as such. Makata’s collages ambivalently force such signification to the forefront of the discourse of contemporary art in Africa and use the preconceptions of “African” art as a driving conceptual framework. Makata’s implicit references to traditional African art are used as a protective defense of a dying culture, referencing “Africanicity” as a visual metaphor.

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Makata’s collages reflect a clash of traditional artistic practices and contemporary influences, of the figurative and the abstract, and of the lighthearted and the threatening. Obinna Makata’s artistic approach confronts the viewer to question their definition of contemporary African art, and, in the process, forces an understanding of art made on the Continent out of a solely assimilative paradigm and one that could proudly and distinctly be defined as “African”. At the same time, Makata contributes to a discourse that traverses cultures and speaks to a dialogue that is inherently global.

 

About the Artist:

 

Obinna Makata uses fabric as a metaphor for cultural identity and evolving social paradigms. His works create narrative associations that deal with quotidian issues in contemporary Nigerian society, including visa queues, modern relationships, and crowded urban environments. Makata graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2007, where he majored in sculpture. Makata is also the Founder and Creative Director of Mma-Nka Studio. Makata has participated actively in over fifteen group shows since 2003.

 

 

 

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