Today marks the end of the SOTO Gallery exhibition featuring exciting works by Nojeem Muse, Victoria
Makinde, Johnson Uwadinma, Imomoh Edgar Asemokha, and Francisco David.
GALLERY STATEMENT:
Responding to a contemporary moment defined simultaneously by increased integration and
increased polarization, the works in this exhibition draw from experiences of upheaval,
fragmentation, and stasis—while affirming the creative potential of hope.
Between Coming And Going addresses the limits of broad, datacentric analyses in helping us
grapple with today’s crises, and considers instead how they affect us on deeply personal scales
and in the everyday. To this end, Johnson Uwadinma turns to the ‘fluidity and malleability’ of
acrylic to represent varied figures whose gestures move from engaged and interested to anxious
and forlorn.
This interest in embodied expression is shared by Victoria Makinde, whose oil paintings
continue her preoccupation with the emotional range of female subjects. Drawing from personal
experiences, Makinde places her subjects in moments suggestive of strength and self-confidence.
Combining the ‘versatility, immediacy and vibrant quality’ of pastels with the grittiness of
charcoal, Imohmoh Asemokha’s works on paper reflect his belief that the artist’s role in periods
of social and political uncertainty is to ‘hold time in his work’ in a way that preserves
endangered cultures and histories.
Through their survival, Asemokha believes, we and those who come after us have a chance at
reconnection. Francisco David, using charcoal, acrylic, and spray paint makes paintings
concerned with the restorative power of beauty, amidst all, just as Nojeem Muse, working with
oil, urges us to preserve our connection with the things around us, with nature and the wider
world.
JOHNSON UWADINMA
FRANCISCO DAVID
Image courtesy of Soto Gallery
NOJEEM MUSE
Image courtesy of Soto Gallery
IMOMOH EDGAR ASEMOKHA
OYINDAMOLA MAKINDE
ABOUT SOTO GALLERY
SOTO Gallery is a contemporary art centre dedicated to sharing diverse African perspectives through art. With an aim to spotlight emerging talents while promoting established artists, the gallery seeks to be a holistic interface between the new and the known, across Africa’s evolving art industry.
They are an artist-oriented and community-centred space seeking to rediscover new ways of engaging artists in response to age-old questions. Through immersive exchanges and art education, we reflect on ideas from a renewed standpoint, resulting in a transformative experience of African art in many varied forms.
The origin of SOTO Gallery began with iDesign Art, established in 2018. iDesign Art is an affordable art fair conceived on the premise of fostering a culture of art appreciation from new and emerging Nigerian talents. Through nine successful editions over the years, they could discover and nurture dynamic young talents while impacting on the economic and cultural values of contemporary Nigerian art, with over two hundred artists featured.
At inception, iDesign art sought to reorient engagement in its capacity, setting a new and uncommon pace in the Lagos art scene. The gallery created a space where tenured and emerging artists could intersect; their works and audiences interacting with one another, which in turn birthed a continuity of growth and opportunity between art stakeholders.
Having sustained a culture of discovering and highlighting untapped potential over previous editions, iDesign Art has morphed into an experience centre of remarkable talent within the Nigerian art landscape. By bringing together artists that not only cut across a range of dominant rhetorics but are also parallel in dogma, the quarterly exhibition is a focal point for spotting emergent discourse. Now, SOTO Gallery will incorporate iDesign Art with an array of events and experiences curated to further our mission.
In addition to the founder’s design prowess and rich cultural background niched in contemporary art and culture, SOTO Gallery will examine new and improved ways of converging design, art and installation. They will be participating in global art fairs, residencies and festivals, contributing to the promotion of African artists to local and global audiences.
