Tiwani Contemporary is pleased to announce The Listening Sweet -3 -Lagos, an exhibition of new works by London-based artist, Andrew Pierre Hart, which speaks to the artist’s anticipated sense of arrival on the African continent.
Hart’s practice centres on the symbiotic relationship between sound and painting through ongoing rhythmic research, and play between improvised and generative processes and rhythms. The Listening Sweet -3 – Lagos features a suite of new paintings that are arranged on a hand-painted mural that spans the walls of the gallery space. Within the space, an installation of fantastical musical instruments, similar to the instruments being played by the musicians within the paintings, is realised as immaculately handcrafted, wooden sculptural objects.
Image courtesy of Tiwani Contemporary
While the dialogue between painting, sculpture and music has always been integral to Hart’s practice, this investigation manifests explicitly within this new body of work, with the works in The Listening Sweet -3 – Lagos reflecting the artist’s perception of the intensity of Lagos and the music it is best known for, in particular, Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. The experience of listening to Kuti’s music has been described by his son Femi Kuti, as “like taking a bitter pill with a sweet drink”, a statement which speaks to the intensity, tonal shifts and cross modalities in Hart’s practice. Like the Calypso music Hart grew up hearing around him as a Londoner of Barbadian heritage, Afrobeat also performs as social commentary, providing a voice to the voiceless and The Listening Sweet – 3 – Lagos is intended by the artist as a call, a gathering of like-minds to a space of rhythmic exchange.
The palette of the paintings in this installation shifts from Hart’s signature use of blue and black to reds, golds, greens and purples. Formally, in the imagined spaces in which his figures are found, Hart draws on architectural cues from post-independence Modernist architecture in Nigeria (and across the continent); from contemporary African architects such
as David Adjaye and Tosin Oshinowo, who respond to the constraints of building in tropical climates, privilege locally-sourced materials and eschew the ideology of Modernism; as well as the internal structure of Fela Kuti’s iconic Shrine, a site that historically commands its ground. The new paintings also reflect Hart’s fascination with the vernacular Gourounsi architecture of the Kassena in Burkino Faso, which features elaborate, geometric hand-painted motifs. The nature of painting itself is a recurring subject matter for the artist, whose practice nods to Western Abstraction and to the central role African art played in the birth of European Modernism.
The Listening Sweet – 3 – Lagos responds site-specifically to the Lagosian context in which it is shared. Through music and other cultural traditions, the artist expresses a feeling of familiarity with Nigeria and a sense of belonging to the continent as a part of the African Diaspora. Both personally and professionally, the paintings, mural soundscapes and sculptures are a divination of Hart’s experience of existing, professionally and personally within the vibrancy of Africa’s largest mega-city; as such the exhibition represents a homecoming of sorts.
The Listening Sweet – 3 – Lagos is an exhibition which encapsulates the multiple strands of Andrew Pierre Hart’s practice. Tiwani Contemporary warmly invites visitors to encounter its Lagos space transformed into a dynamic, experiential environment in which to discover Hart’s singular creative voice.
For further information, press images and interview requests, please contact:
Orla Houston-Jibo | orla@tiwani.co.uk
About Tiwani Contemporary
Founded in 2011 by Maria Varnava, Tiwani Contemporary’s primary mission is to represent artists from Africa and its global diaspora. To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, in February 2022 Tiwani Contemporary launched a purpose-built 2,000sq ft space on Victoria Island, Lagos. In October 2023 it will relocate its London operations from 4 Cromwell Place to Burlington Gate, Cork Street, Mayfair, a recently completed mixed-use building by Richard Rogers. The gallery will include two exhibition spaces and a viewing room designed by architectural studio, MATHESON WHITELEY, with interiors and bespoke furniture by Nigerian industrial and furniture designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello, the winner of the 2022 Hublot Design Prize.
Varnava established Tiwani, which loosely translates as “ours” or “it belongs to us” from the Yoruba language, with the encouragement of her friend and mentor, renowned Nigerian.
international curator, Bisi Silva (1962- 2019). Silva proposed the name as an encapsulation of the gallery’s intentions, which include providing a space inclusive to everyone, a safe space for dialogue that values nuance and considers context and the multiple dimensions of identity, being, and belonging.
Born in Cyprus, Varnava spent her childhood years in Lagos where she absorbed the visual language of Nigeria and developed the lens through which she has subsequently approached contemporary visual arts practice. This formative experience was followed by studies in African Studies with a focus in African Art at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and several years at Christie’s working in business development, before venturing out on her own.
Across both the Lagos and London gallery sites, Tiwani Contemporary produces between 10-12 exhibitions per year. Since 2022, it has also supported its artists to participate in the Guest Artists Space Foundation (G.A.S.) residency programme, founded by artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. Tiwani contributes to the arts ecosystem in Lagos through its programme of exhibitions, talks and publications, the latter produced with the support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation, creating opportunities for local students and emerging practitioners to experience international contemporary art in a Nigerian context.
Tiwani Contemporary participates in international art fairs that have included: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Frieze London, New York, and Los Angeles, Art X Lagos, and Art Basel Miami Beach. Works by Tiwani’s roster of artists can be found in the collections of Tate Gallery, London, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, The Government Art Collection, UK, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, and MoMA New York, as well as many other globally renowned institutions.
Represented artists: Virginia Chihota, Theo Eshetu, Mary Evans, Miranda Forrester, Andrew Pierre Hart, Alicia Henry, Délio Jasse, Joy Labinjo, Gareth Nyandoro, Dawit L Petros, Emma Prempeh, Umar Rashid, Leo Robinson, Robel Temesgen, Joseph Olisameka Wilson.
Andrew Pierre Hart
Andrew Pierre Hart explores the symbiotic relationship between sound and painting through ongoing rhythmic research and play between improvised and spontaneous generative processes. The artist’s practice questions the many formalities and dialogues around painting. His works explore somatic responses to ideas relating to sound including but not limited to acoustic levitation, spatialization, the human as a vessel of sound and the creation of physical and theoretical space. Deeply influenced by music, Hart’s work is a renegotiation of the visual language and legacies of Western abstraction, probing connections between the phenomena, language and representation of sound in painting.
Andrew Pierre Hart lives and works in London. He holds a MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2019) and BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts (2017). He is a
recipient of the ArtAngel ‘Thinking Time’ Award (2020) and Tiffany & Co. x Outset Studiomakers Prize (2019).
Recent exhibitions include Secret of Lightness, Parafin, London (2022), ICF’s Diaspora Pavillon 2:London, Block 336, London (2022), Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Southbank Centre, London (2021); The Listening Sweet, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (2021); Run the Box, A Solo Show by Andrew Hart, Guts Gallery, London (2020); Charmaine Watkiss & Andrew Pierre Hart: The Abstract Truth of Things, Tiwani Contemporary, London UK (2020): Collective Intimacies at Theaster Gates Black Image Corporation, 180 The Strand, London (2019); Royal College of Art Graduate Show (2019). In September 2023 he is the subject of a solo exhibition at Asia Art Center, Taipei, and in 2024 will realise a new commission for the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
London | 4 Cromwell Place | London | SW7 2JE
Lagos | 13 Elsie Femi Pearse Street | Victoria Island
