A event held at Arnolfini on Tuesday 2nd July. The event starts at 11:00.
Adébayo Bolaji : In Praise of Beauty
Arnolfini welcome you into the kaleidoscopic and multidisciplinary world of Adébayo Bolaji, whose solo exhibition In Praise of Beauty takes over the first-floor galleries, exploring and questioning notions of beauty through painting, sculpture, film and writing.
Based upon a new body of work (commissioned by New Art Exchange) In Praise of Beauty includes the monumental works in acrylic and oil pastel The Vessel (2024) and No Beauty Without Struggle (2024), mixed-media series I Love you (2024), drawings, and mythological-inspired sculpture with The Head of Medusa (2024). Showing alongside is A Notebook on the Voice (2023), a film which Bolaji describes as ‘a scrap-book, exploring ideas on what it can mean to have a voice, to use it, or to have it used…’
For its reimagining at Arnolfini, Bolaji has added a small number of new paintings and collaged works, developed this year as part of his ongoing philosophical enquiry into ideas of beauty.
In Praise of Beauty is accompanied by a programme engagement activities and events.
Bolaji has exhibited internationally with artist residencies in New York, the PRAH Foundation, Margate, and Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects, and has recently unveiled his first public art commission The People’s Throne in Acton Gardens, London in 2023. He is represented by Beers, London.
In Praise of Beauty originated at New Art Exchange, Nottingham.
Nengi Omuku : The Dance of People and the Natural World
This Summer, journey into the lush landscapes of Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku‘s exhibition The Dance of People and the Natural World at Arnolfini.
Omuku’s human figures blend seamlessly with nature, exploring the relationship between individual and collective thought, belonging, and psychological spaces that transcend traditional Western landscape painting.
Featuring the monumental work Eden and new additions such as Quorum and Rumours of War, The Dance of People and the Natural World brings together pieces first shown at Hastings Contemporary in 2023.
Omuku’s rich, dreamlike color palette is heavily influenced by the muted tones of Sanyan, a pre-colonial Nigerian textile woven from moth silk and cotton, blending Western oil painting traditions with Nigeria’s textile craftsmanship.
Hung away from the gallery wall or suspended from ceilings, Omuku invites the audience to see both sides of each cloth, revealing symbolic artistry and patterns like prayers of fertility woven within. Her paradisical landscapes and gardens draw inspiration from real places like Monet’s Garden in Giverny and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, as well as memories of her mother’s garden and imagined realms where flora and fauna take on fantastical forms.
Whether real or imagined, Omuku’s works offer landscapes to long for and find solace in, as she looks back at happier times and explores the slow passage of time, a continual theme since her solo exhibition Parables of Joy in 2022.
Nengi Omuku: The Dance of People and the Natural World originated at Hastings Contemporary in 2023-2024.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
Arnolfini welcome you into the kaleidoscopic and multidisciplinary world of Adébayo Bolaji, whose solo exhibition In Praise of Beauty takes over the first-floor galleries, exploring and questioning notions of beauty through painting, sculpture, film and writing.
Based upon a new body of work (commissioned by New Art Exchange) In Praise of Beauty includes the monumental works in acrylic and oil pastel The Vessel (2024) and No Beauty Without Struggle (2024), mixed-media series I Love you (2024), drawings, and mythological-inspired sculpture with The Head of Medusa (2024). Showing alongside is A Notebook on the Voice (2023), a film which Bolaji describes as ‘a scrap-book, exploring ideas on what it can mean to have a voice, to use it, or to have it used…’
For its reimagining at Arnolfini, Bolaji has added a small number of new paintings and collaged works, developed this year as part of his ongoing philosophical enquiry into ideas of beauty.
In Praise of Beauty is accompanied by a programme engagement activities and events.
Bolaji has exhibited internationally with artist residencies in New York, the PRAH Foundation, Margate, and Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Projects, and has recently unveiled his first public art commission The People’s Throne in Acton Gardens, London in 2023. He is represented by Beers, London.
In Praise of Beauty originated at New Art Exchange, Nottingham.
Nengi Omuku : The Dance of People and the Natural World
This Summer, journey into the lush landscapes of Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku‘s exhibition The Dance of People and the Natural World at Arnolfini.
Omuku’s human figures blend seamlessly with nature, exploring the relationship between individual and collective thought, belonging, and psychological spaces that transcend traditional Western landscape painting.
Featuring the monumental work Eden and new additions such as Quorum and Rumours of War, The Dance of People and the Natural World brings together pieces first shown at Hastings Contemporary in 2023.
Omuku’s rich, dreamlike color palette is heavily influenced by the muted tones of Sanyan, a pre-colonial Nigerian textile woven from moth silk and cotton, blending Western oil painting traditions with Nigeria’s textile craftsmanship.
Hung away from the gallery wall or suspended from ceilings, Omuku invites the audience to see both sides of each cloth, revealing symbolic artistry and patterns like prayers of fertility woven within. Her paradisical landscapes and gardens draw inspiration from real places like Monet’s Garden in Giverny and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, as well as memories of her mother’s garden and imagined realms where flora and fauna take on fantastical forms.
Whether real or imagined, Omuku’s works offer landscapes to long for and find solace in, as she looks back at happier times and explores the slow passage of time, a continual theme since her solo exhibition Parables of Joy in 2022.
Nengi Omuku: The Dance of People and the Natural World originated at Hastings Contemporary in 2023-2024.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
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