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    Cubist Figures Wade into the Shadowy Depths of Connor Addison’s Allegories

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    “In the Loving Care of Animal Spirits” (2022), oil and acrylic on linen, 200 x 300 centimeters. All images © Connor Addison, shared with permission

    Cubist Figures Wade into the Shadowy Depths of Connor Addison’s Allegories

    September 6, 2024

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    With light inevitably comes darkness, a dualism Barcelona-based artist Connor Addison (previously) finds endlessly intriguing. “We so often forget to embrace the shadow as it’s presumed unloveable or is invisible,” he says.

    Addison pulls at what he finds “in the space between our joy, passion, conscious thought and our fear…what lies in the shadows of our mind.” He often begins a painting with an inquiry or thought that turns into an allegory. “Brothers II,” for example, came from the following questions: “What is a sibling relationship? How do play and manipulation function between siblings?”

    “Brothers II” (2024), 260 x 161 centimeters

    “Visualisation can be so spontaneous,” he adds. “The whole painting just emerges while brushing my teeth for example.”

    Working in muted palettes of earth tones, Addison renders cubist figures with pointed flesh and geometric limbs. Stripping away clothing and distinctive facial features appeals to universal feelings and emotions, like unconditional love, anguish, and curiosity. He adds:

    I like the idea that someone 2,000 years in the future or past would still find a work meaningful and intelligible, perhaps even on an alien planet! Allegory is a powerful thing. Its popularity died as religion fell out of vogue, and we became more literate, but I love a story captured in image. It can say so much more than the word.

    Addison is preparing for his next solo show with Aktion Art in 2026. Follow his work on Instagram.

    “How Long Must This Silence Echo” (2021), oil on linen, 140 x 89 centimeters

    “Mother, Mother” (2021), oil on linen, 150 x 150 centimeters

    “The Conversation” (2023), oil on Linen, 260 x 183 centimeters

    “Becoming Myself Without Any End” (2024), 263 x 142 centimeters

    “Something From Nothing” (2023), oil and watercolor on linen, 400 x 200 centimeters

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      Architecture and Bold Geometry Fragment Cubist Portraits by Patrick Oberhi Akpojotor

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      Art

      #architecture
      #cubism
      #identity
      #painting
      #portraits
      #self-portrait

      March 1, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “FELA the Rattle” (2019), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. All images © Patrick Oberhi Akpojotor, shared with permission
      In his architectural portraits, Patrick Oberhi Akpojotor visualizes the exchange between humans and their built environments, whether real or imagined. The artist’s spatial body of work, which explicitly contemplates the relationship between interiority and exteriority, is founded in his childhood in Lagos, a city checkered with traditional, colonial, and contemporary structures where he still lives today. “I saw how a former residential area became a commercial one changing how people interacted with that community,” he says.
      Rendered in bold blocks of acrylic, Akpojotor’s paintings encourage introspection as they consider how identities inform the design of single buildings and infrastructure, which in turn shape the people who occupy those spaces. The anthropomorphic structures evoke cubist geometry and illusion, fracturing the body with a staircase, brick chimney, or entire house, and some works shown here, including both “In Memory of the Living” pieces, are self-portraits.
      Beyond his surroundings in Nigeria, Akpojotor derives inspiration from ancient African sculptures and masks, particularly “the way the forms are intentionally distorted to pass messages and symbols of their (beliefs),” he shares. “In my work, the way object(s) are placed does not matter. What is important is that the object(s) are represented, and the message is passed.”
      Find a collection of Akpojotor’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures on his site, in addition to studio shots and glimpses at works-in-progress on Instagram. (via Juxtapoz)

      “In Memory of the Living I” (2019), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
      Left: “In my Image” (2020), acrylic on canvas, 96 x 63 inches. Right: “Oga Boss” (2020), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
      “Girl with Red Ribbon” (2021), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
      Left: “Witness to the times” (2020), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. Right: “Time” (2019), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
      “In Memory of the Living II” (2019), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

      #architecture
      #cubism
      #identity
      #painting
      #portraits
      #self-portrait

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