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Art historian dele
jegede (he does not capitalise his name) is to make a return to the Nigerian exhibition space with
‘Peregrinations’, his first solo show in the country in over 20 years.
The exhibition, which opens at the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos next
month, will showcase new paintings and drawings by the US-based artist,
currently Professor of Art at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. His last
art public appearance in Nigeria was in April 2010, as the keynote
lecturer on ‘Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Legacy’ at the Grillo Pavilion in
Ikorodu, Lagos. The forthcoming exhibition go a long way to remind
aficionados and patrons of the visual art, practice of jegede, who
graduated with a First Class degree in Fine Art from Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, in 1973.

Social conscience

Pieces that will go
on display in ‘Peregrinations’ include the Niger Delta Series, works
executed in latex on canvas, collage and mixed media. The militancy
motif is a major factor in the Niger Delta Series, exploring the
artist’s ruminations on Nigeria’s oil politics.

“My work has become
a platform for parsing the anguish that is a concomitant of the aborted
dreams that Nigeria emblematises,” jegede said in a statement released
ahead of the exhibition. “From the Niger-Delta imbroglio and the
government’s shocking tepidity in responding to the massive
environmental degradation that has become a perennial issue, to the
political charade in which political actors out-compete themselves in
plundering the collective wealth, Nigeria has become-or should
become-the politically sensitive artist’s canvas,” he stated.

“In contributing to
the efforts to conscientise the citizenry to the squandering of
Nigeria’s human and natural riches, and in stemming the promotion of
the culture of self-aggrandisement by the political class, I stand for
an art that nags our social conscience.”

Receptacles

Also on view in
‘Peregrinations’ are ‘The Abuja Series’ (latex on canvas) and the
‘Ancestral Spirit Series’ (acrylic on canvas). “My canvases function as
receptacles: archives for deeply personal visual soliloquies that are
uttered on those occasions when the need for visual pungency trumps the
desire for the promulgation of beauty.”

The Daily Times years

One of the older
pieces in the exhibition is likely to be ‘State of Anomie’, a 1994
collage on paper piece from the Joe Obiago Collection, which recalls
Jegede’s illustrious career as Art Editor of the now defunct Daily
Times, a position he held from 1974 to 1977. During his time at the
newspaper, jegede worked with, among others, cartoonist Josy Ajiboye
(whose solo exhibition is currently open to the public at Terra Kulture
in Lagos).

jegede made social
and political cartoons the order of the day on the pages of the Daily
Times; and he was responsible for the popular ‘Kole The Menace’ strip
cartoon, which he began drawing in 1976. He was elected President,
Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) in 1989 and worked with notable
scholars and artists, including: Bisi Fakeye, Ndidi Dike and the late
Okpu Eze. SNA state chapters were created during jegede’s tenure. He
delivered the lecture at the first Africa Regional Summit and
Exhibition on Visual Arts (ARESUVA), in 2008.

As he prepares for
his new two-week exhibition, dele jegede suggests that his art is also
a reflection on his self-exile, among other preoccupations. “My art is
cathartic. It is an averment of my personal aesthetics: an articulation
of the pangs and anxieties, the socio-cultural bemusements and
conflicts, and the political conundrums and economic predilections that
have continued to assault my sensibilities as a Diasporic citizen,” he
declared.

He stated further: “My creative temper has become increasingly
apathetic to the production of art that cosmetises. The social,
intellectual, and emotional tensions imposed by voluntary exile-the
contradictions inherent in living in an adopted home but incapable of,
or unwilling to, sever the umbilical cord to my ancestral roots-are
confronted, addressed, but remain unresolved in my art.”

dele jegede’s
‘Peregrinations’ is at the Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos from April 30
to May 12.