portraits Archivi ~ Page 7 of 31 ~ art-news.space - All about the world of art and culture!

More stories

113 Shares189 Views
in Art
A Provocative Photography Exhibition Invites You to Experience ‘Chromotherapia’
by Aurelia Butler 28 January 2025, 15:12
Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, “Toiiletpaper.” Image courtesy of ‘Toiletpaper.’
A Provocative Photography Exhibition Invites You to Experience ‘Chromotherapia’
January 28, 2025
ArtBooksPhotography
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
In the world of photography, the color image has long held an inferior reputation to black-and-white, which connoisseurs historically deemed to be more dignified. Today, vibrant images are embraced in a wide range of fields, from fine art and fashion to advertising and journalism.
Championing the potential of the medium, artist Maurizio Cattelan and French Academy in Rome—Villa Medici director Sam Stourdzé curated Chromotherapia: The Feel-Good Color Photography.
Martin Parr, “Common Sense.” Image © Magnum Photos
Color therapy, though deemed a pseudoscience, has its roots in color theory, which focuses on interactions between hues and how they affect our moods and emotions.
Cattelan and Stourdzé emphasize ebullient hyperreality, humor, and the absurd through works like Juno Calypso’s “Chicken Dogs,” in which an anonymous figure lies face-down next to a can of hot dogs, or Walter Candoha’s expressive pets. And in “Toiletpaper,” by Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, who co-founded a magazine of the same name in 2010, a man sits on a tan couch, wearing a matching suit, covered in spaghetti.
In total, twenty artists explore a range of approaches in the exhibition, from portraits of people and animals to food and uncanny tableaux. “Many have freed themselves from the documentary function of the photographic medium to explore the common roots of the image and the imaginary, flirting with pop art, surrealism, bling, kitsch, and the baroque,” says a statement.
Chromotherapia opens February 28 and continues through June 9 in Rome, and an accompanying catalogue published by Damiani is slated for release in March in the U.K. and May in the U.S. Pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop.
Cover of ‘Chromotherapia’ (2025). Featured image by Walter Chandoha, “New Jersey” (1962). Image ©️ Walter Chandoha Archive
Juno Calypso, “Chicken Dogs” (2015), archival pigment print. Image © Courtesy the artist and TJ Boulting
William Wegman, “Ski Patrol” (2017). Image courtesy of Galerie George-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois
The back cover of Damiani’s catalogue for the exhibition ‘Chromotherapia: The Feel-Good Color Photography,’ featuring a photo by Walter Chandoha
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
100 Shares129 Views
in Art
Gertrude Abercrombie’s Autobiographical Surrealism Traverses Dreams and Reality
by Aurelia Butler 6 January 2025, 22:21
“Where or When (Things Past)” (1948), oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art and Colby Museum of Art, shared with permission
Gertrude Abercrombie’s Autobiographical Surrealism Traverses Dreams and Reality
January 6, 2025
ArtHistory
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
“Surrealism is meant for me because I am a pretty realistic person but don’t like all I see,” Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977) once said. “So I dream that it is changed. Then I change it to the way I want it.”
Abercrombie’s stark, symbol-rich landscapes and enigmatic portraits painted in oil were influenced by the European Surrealist movement, magical realism, and her own dreams. A leading figure in Chicago art, she was also involved in the city’s jazz scene, counting musical greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan among her friends.
“Queen and Owl in Tree” (1954), oil on masonite, 4 1/2 x 6 inches (unframed)
The artist’s mystical works “suggest a life of wistful introspection and emotional struggle,” says a statement for the forthcoming exhibition Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The show and accompanying catalog present an opportunity for visitors to experience the artist’s highly personal work in significant depth, with access to artworks held in a range of private and public collections all gathered in one place.
Born in Austin, Texas, Abercrombie grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and spent some time in her father’s hometown of Aledo, Illinois. The small town in the northwestern part of the Midwestern state eventually became a source of inspiration for her atmospheric paintings.
The artist studied the Romance languages at the University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign and then pursued a course in commercial art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where she may also have briefly attended the School of the Art Institute.
In 1932, Abercrombie began her career as a professional artist, which was spurred soon after by the support of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (FPA/WPA). The program ran from 1935 to 1943 and provided economic relief to artists and craftspeople during the Great Depression. Along with Abercrombie, a slew of notable artists participated, from Arshile Gorky and Lucile Blanch to Jackson Pollock and Diego Rivera, among many others.
“Demolition Doors” (1964), oil on masonite, Masonite, 20 x 25 1/2 inches (unframed)
The Federal Art Project set up community centers around the U.S., sustaining the careers and livelihoods of around 10,000 artisans who contributed an estimated 400,000 easel paintings, prints, murals, posters, and other works during the program’s eight-year run.
Abercrombie participated in the FAP/WPA from 1935 to 1940. Around this time, she showed her work widely, including in annual exhibitions presented by the Art Institute of Chicago and venues like Katharine Kuh Gallery, one of the city’s first commercial galleries to feature avant-garde work.
Motifs like solitary women, dead trees, forking paths, stark landscapes, doors, cats, towers, and shells recur in her work. Abercrombie remarked that the scenes were always “pretty real,” merging facets of reality and the fantastic. “Only mystery and fantasy have been added,” she said. “All foolishness has been taken out. It becomes my own dream.”
“Split Personality” (1954), oil on masonite, 8 x 10 inches
In “Demolition Doors” (1964), for example, a black feline parks in front of a series of three multi-colored panels occupying most of the frame, behind which sits a gray, mostly empty landscape that could be either indoors or outdoors. Portal-like, the doors represent choices one makes about what direction to take, what threshold to cross. The cat stands sentry, waiting on the viewer’s—and by extension, the artist’s—ultimate decision. “The whole world is a mystery,” she had said.
Abercrombie associated some of her recurring symbols with a witch’s persona—historically an identity connected predominantly to women—which she sometimes embraced in her own fashion choices. She occasionally donned a pointed velvet hat to accentuate her sharp features and tall stature. The female figure, including Abercrombie’s own likeness, is often shown traversing barren terrain, reclining in pensive quietude, or interacting with otherworldly forces.
In an interview with Studs Terkel shortly before her death, Abercrombie said that “it is always myself that I paint.” For example, in “Split Personality” (1954), a woman in a blue dress, standing inside an unadorned room, has been cut in half at the waist. Her torso and head hover over a pitcher, and she reaches out toward her legs, but the shadow on the wall to the left depicts a complete figure—the sum of two parts—as a way of suggesting that looks can be deceiving.
“The Ivory Tower” (1945), oil on masonite, 15 x 19 inches
“With a deft hand, a concise symbolic vocabulary, and a restrained palette, she created potent images that speak to her mercurial nature and her evolving psychology as an artist,” says an exhibition statement.
Later in life, Abercrombie’s artistic output gradually waned as ongoing health issues related to arthritis and alcoholism took a toll. She became more reclusive as she eventually required a wheelchair, before being confined to bed. A major retrospective of her work was held at the Hyde Park Art Center the year she died, and her will established the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust, which distributed her work and pieces by others in her collection to cultural institutions across the Midwest.
Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery opens in Pittsburgh on January 18 and continues through June 1. The exhibition then travels to Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, opening on July 12 and running through January 11, 2026. Find more on the Carnegie website.
“Winding Road” (1937), oil on board, 7 7/8 x 10 inches (unframed)
“Letter from Karl” (1940), oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
“The Countess Nerona” (c. 1945), oil on masonite, 8 x 10 inches (unframed)
“Self-Portrait Brooch” (1954), oil on board, set in wire mount, 1 x 1 inch overall
“The Church” (1938), oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
“Shell and Drape” (1952), oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches (unframed)
“Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting” (1946), oil on masonite, 17 15/16 x 21 7/8 x 1 1/8 inches
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
63 Shares159 Views
in Art
Our Favorite Stories of 2024
by Aurelia Butler 13 December 2024, 14:00
All images © Todd Antony, shared with permission
Our Favorite Stories of 2024
December 13, 2024
ArtColossalHistoryPhotographySocial Issues
Colossal
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
As we look back at the hundreds of remarkable initiatives, artworks, discoveries, and events we’ve chronicled throughout 2024, we’re continually awed by the creative work we’re able to write about everyday. It’s a privilege to be able to share so much creativity with you, and we thought we’d compile a list of our favorites.
Below, you’ll find eight picks—two from each of us—that showcase just a few of the remarkable projects we published over the past twelve months. Many of these articles impart deeper context, delve into personal experiences through interviews, and highlight important stories that may have flown under the radar.
You might also enjoy our readers’ choice top articles of the year and Colossal’s favorite books of 2024. Happy reading!
—Christopher, Grace, Kate, and Jackie
Image © Irina Werning
Jackie’s Pick: In ‘Las Pelilargas,’ Irina Werning Celebrates the Impeccably Long Hair of Latin American Women and Girls
For the last 17 years, Irina Werning has traveled throughout Latin America photographing women and girls for her ongoing series, Las Pelilargas, or The Longhairs. Shot in color and black and white, the portraits document a distinct cultural practice through an incredibly alluring, even surreal lens.
L.V. Hull at her home in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in 2002. Photo by Bruce West. Image courtesy of the L.V. Hull Legacy Center
Grace’s Pick: The Home Studio of the Late Artist L.V. Hull Is Added to the National Register of Historic Places
Kosciusko is a small town in the center of Mississippi with just under 7,000 residents. Known as the birthplace of Oprah Winfrey, Kosciusko was also home to the late artist L.V. Hull (1942–2008) who devoted her life to painting and assembling found objects.
Ellie Hannon works on one of her paintings on the aft deck during sunset on the Timor Sea around Ashmore Reef. Images © Schmidt Ocean Institute
Kate’s Pick: Art and Science Set Sail in Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Artist-at-Sea Program
“There are many ways to tell a story or to document and share research and discoveries,” says artist Ellie Hannon, one of 54 artists who have embarked on a unique residency organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. From slip-cast porcelain and painting to 3D printing and virtual reality, the storytelling possibilities are endless in the Artist-at-Sea program, which invites artists to work alongside scientists on weeks-long expeditions into some of the least-explored areas of our oceans. More
163 Shares189 Views
in Art
Through Monumental Installations of Soap and Stones, Jesse Krimes Interrogates the Prison System
by Aurelia Butler 21 November 2024, 20:27
Apokaluptein:16389067″ (2010–2013), cotton sheets, ink, hair gel, graphite, and gouache, 15 x 40 feet. All images courtesy of Jesse Krimes, Jack Shainman Gallery, and The Met, shared with permission
Through Monumental Installations of Soap and Stones, Jesse Krimes Interrogates the Prison System
November 21, 2024
ArtSocial Issues
Grace Ebert
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
Around 2009, Jesse Krimes was sent to solitary confinement while awaiting trial for a drug charge. He had recently graduated from Millersville University of Pennsylvania with an art degree and spent his first year inside Fairton Federal Correctional Institution making. “The one thing they could not take away or control was my ability to create,” he says.
Like many incarcerated artists, Krimes had to forgo the luxuries of a pristine canvas and set of paints. Instead, he had to be resourceful and utilize the few materials available to him. He began transferring mugshots and small photos printed in The New York Times onto wet remnants of soap bars. He then tucked the blurred, inverse portraits into cut-out decks of playing cards glued together with toothpaste, which created a kind of protective casing that allowed him to smuggle the works out of the facility.
Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards
The 292 works became “Purgatory,” which considers how we view criminality and references the unwinnable game of living in a carceral society. Having transferred both photos of people sentenced to prison and celebrities like Naomi Campbell and David Letterman, Krimes points to the ways popularized images can exacerbate power imbalances.
“Purgatory” is currently on view at The Met in Jesse Krimes: Corrections, one of two New York exhibitions of the artist’s work.
Exploring the role of photography in the criminal justice system, Corrections brings together several of Krimes’ large-scale works, including “Apokaluptein: 16389067.” The 40-foot patchwork mural similarly features imagery taken from newspapers that the artist transferred to 39 prison-issue bedsheets using hair gel. Inverted photographic renderings piece together advertisements, snapshots of global strife, and scenes of life from 2010 to 2013, all overlaid with Krimes’ own drawings.
The root of apocalypse, apokaluptein is a Greek word translating to “uncover” and “revelation.” Paired with Krimes’ Bureau of Prisons ID number, the title references mass destruction and the mediated view of the world from inside the justice system.
Detail of “Apokaluptein:16389067” (2010–2013), cotton sheets, ink, hair gel, graphite, and gouache, 15 x 40 feet
Following his release, Krimes co-founded the Center for Art and Advocacy, which supports artists directly impacted by the justice system, and continues to collaborate with people who are incarcerated, often seeking help in sourcing materials for his work.
“Naxos,” for example, suspends 9,000 pebbles from prison yards in a vivid installation as a parallel to “Apokaluptein: 16389067” at The Met. And at Jack Shainman Gallery, where Krimes is represented, the artist’s new body of work repurposes clothing gathered from currently and formerly incarcerated people into sweeping tapestries.
Cells features three abstract works of transferred art historical imagery overlaid with sprawling, network-like embroideries. The webbed pattern is based on microscopic images of cancerous cells, which the artist excised to leave only the healthy tissue intact. By removing these malignancies, he creates an intricate metaphor for the ways the justice system extracts people from society while exploring new pathways toward care and redemption.
Part of Krimes’ intent for his practice is to pay homage to those inside. “It is an absolute honor to have works that were created in such an austere and traumatic environment on display,” he said about Corrections. “To show these works highlights much more than the work of an individual artist, namely the collective value, creativity, and dignity of the millions of people currently behind prison walls.”
Cells is on view through December 21 at Jack Shainman Gallery, while Jesse Krimes: Corrections runs through July 13, 2025, at The Met. Find more from Krimes on his website.
“Unicorn” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, and image transfer, 109 x 105 x 2 3/4 inches
Detail of “Unicorn” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, and image transfer, 109 x 105 x 2 3/4 inches
Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards
Detail of “Purgatory” (2009), soap, ink, and playing cards
Detail of “Naxos,” installation view of ‘Jesse Krimes: Corrections’
Detail of “Naxos,” installation view of ‘Jesse Krimes: Corrections’
“Stag” (2024), used clothing collected from currently and formerly incarcerated people, assorted textiles, embroidery, image transfer, acrylic paint, 82 x 77 x 2 3/4 inches
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
125 Shares169 Views
in Art
In ‘Keep the Kid Alive,’ Arielle Bobb-Willis Reaches for Exuberance
by Aurelia Butler 1 November 2024, 17:52
New Jersey (2017). All images © Arielle Bobb-Willis, shared with permission
In ‘Keep the Kid Alive,’ Arielle Bobb-Willis Reaches for Exuberance
November 1, 2024
ArtBooksPhotography
Grace Ebert
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
Color, movement, and sweeping, expertly choreographed gestures permeate the works of Arielle Bobb-Willis. The Los Angeles-based photographer blurs the boundaries between art and fashion imagery, rejecting “the notion that Black expression is limited—or limiting.”
A slim monograph collects 90 of Bobb-Willis’s photos, highlighting her distinctive eye and bold, conceptual compositions. Published by Aperture, Keep the Kid Alive positions observation and imagination as useful tools to inspire awe for the overlooked. Models dressed in bright, color-blocked garments pose in parks or alleyways, their joyful dances and chromatic clothing enriching the nondescript spaces.
New Jersey (2017)
Bobb-Willis first picked up a camera at 14 and through moves from New York to Aiken, South Carolina, to New Orleans, found the medium was both cathartic through chronic depression and loss and also an essential tool for developing her taste and confidence.
“Photography is how I keep my inner child alive. Photography has taught me to fall in love with life,” she shares with Nicole Acheampong in an interview in the book, adding:
I love finding unexpected rainbows, and sunshine and a beautiful green park and kids’ chalk drawings on the sidewalk and melted ice cream and butterflies and flowers and Black girls with bright-blue braids and sweet graffiti poetry! I keep my inner child alive by taking pictures of my every day. I’m always finding things that I’m so in love with. …Photography is, and will always be, a daily practice of falling in love with as many things as I can.
Whether captured in a Los Angeles parking lot or against a purple wall in New Jersey, Bobb-Willis’s images are dynamic and vivid, drawing beauty and exuberance from unassuming spaces.
Keep the Kid Alive is available on Bookshop, and you can find more from Bobb-Willis on her website and Instagram.
New Orleans (2021)
Los Angeles (2020)
Williamsburg (2016)
New Jersey (2018)
New Orleans (2017)
New Jersey (2019)
New Jersey (2022)
New Orleans (2016)
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
138 Shares179 Views
in Art
In ‘Hidden Portraits,’ Volker Hermes Reimagines Historical Figures in Overwhelming Frippery
by Aurelia Butler 18 October 2024, 20:00
“Hidden van Mierevelt IV” (2022), from “Portrait of a Man in a White Frill” (1620s) by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt
In ‘Hidden Portraits,’ Volker Hermes Reimagines Historical Figures in Overwhelming Frippery
October 18, 2024
ArtBooksHistory
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
Engulfed in their own finery, the subjects of Volker Hermes’ portraits epitomize a bygone era. From the Italian High Renaissance to French Rococo, his digital reinterpretations playfully hide the faces of wealthy and aristocratic sitters.
Hidden Portraits: Old Masters Reimagined, a new book forthcoming this month, gathers a quintessential selection of Hermes’ works into one volume. Highlighting the artist’s wry commentary on luxury, social status, and fame, the selection delves into the history of portraiture through a humorous lens.
“Hidden Wright of Derby” (2023), from “Portrait of Dorothy Beridge, née Gladwin” (1777) by Joseph Wright of Derby
Hermes expands upon the ornate silk gowns, brocade, and lace ruffs that characterized elite fashion through the centuries (previously). An enormous bow cocoons a woman in “Hidden Wright of Derby,” for example, elaborating on a portrait of a wealthy woman painted by Joseph Wright of Derby, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
In striking profile, strings of pearls and a green, helmet-like hood envelop Bianca Maria Sforza, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, in “Hidden de Predis,” the 15th-century inspiration for which can be viewed at the National Gallery of Art.
Explore more of Hermes’ work on his website, and snag a copy of Hidden Portraits on Bookshop.
“Hidden de Predis” (2023), from “Portrait Bianca Maria Sforza” (1493-95) by the workshop of Ambrogio de Predis
“Hidden Titian II” (2021), from “Portrait of a Man with a Quilted Sleeve” (1511) by Titian
“Hidden de Bray” (2022), from “Portrait of a Young Woman” (1667) by Jan de Bray
“Hidden Cornelius Johnson” (2023), from “Portrait of Thomas, 1st Baron Coventry” (1631) by Cornelius Johnson
“Hidden de Keyser” (2019), from “Portrait of a Gentleman” (c. 1626) by Thomas de Keyser
“Hidden Pourbus VIII” (2023), from “Portrait of a Nobleman” (1593) by Frans Pourbus the Younger
“Hidden Anonymous (Munich Court Painter)” (2023), from “Portrait of a Young Lady” (1623), by an unknown artist
Cover of ‘Hidden Portraits: Old Masters Reimagined,’ featuring “Hidden Jacometto” (2019), from “Portrait of a Young Man” (1480s) by Jacometto Veneziano
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
113 Shares199 Views
in Art
‘The Women Who Changed Photography’ Chronicles 50 Trailblazing Artists
by Aurelia Butler 16 October 2024, 10:00
Shirin Neshat, “Land of Dreams” (2019), film still. © Shirin Neshat, courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and London. All images courtesy of Laurence King Publishing, shared with permission
‘The Women Who Changed Photography’ Chronicles 50 Trailblazing Artists
October 16, 2024
ArtBooksHistoryPhotography
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
In 1929, sought-after New York fashion model Lee Miller moved to Paris to apprentice with surrealist photographer Man Ray, joining an influential circle of artists. She and Ray worked so closely together, in fact, that many of her photos have been erroneously attributed to him.
Like many women, Miller’s work was often overshadowed by her male counterparts. A new book, The Women Who Changed Photography: And How to Master Their Techniques, marks Miller’s contribution to photography among 49 more groundbreaking artists who incorporated unique techniques blazed a trail for future generations.
Cindy Sherman, “Untitled #577” (2016)
From Zanele Muholi’s bold black-and-white visages to masters of disguise, like French surrealist Claude Cahun (1894-1954) and contemporary artist Cindy Sherman, identity plays a vital role in many of the practices featured.
Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, for example, often delves into the complexities of womanhood within Islamic cultural and religious value systems. Pushpamala N. employs narrative and figuration in images that critique stereotypes of women in India.
Released by Laurence King Publishing last month, The Women Who Changed Photography chronicles the individuals, aesthetics, and approaches that have shaped the field. Grab your copy on Bookshop.
Pushpamala N., “Yogini F-24” (2000–2004) from Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs
Claude Cahun, “Self Portrait (Holding Mask)” (undated)
Julie Cockburn, “Feed the Birds (Women)” (2019)
Shirin Neshat, “Rebellious Silence” (1994)
Julia Margaret Cameron, portrait of Julia Jackson Duckworth (1846-1895)
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Next article More
163 Shares99 Views
in Art
Collaged Portraits by Emma Odumade Draw on the Past to Face the Future
by Aurelia Butler 8 October 2024, 12:31
“Call of Duty (A New Anthem)” (2024), charcoal, acrylic, ink, vintage photos, and black tea on canvas, 101.6 x 101.6 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and Unit London, shared with permission
Collaged Portraits by Emma Odumade Draw on the Past to Face the Future
October 8, 2024
ArtPhotography
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Email
Bookmark
Growing up in Lagos, Emma Odumade always drew cartoons and created collages on paper. As he continued to make work, his interest grew in highlighting the world around him, especially young people in his community.
Odumade’s vibrant portraits and self-portraits, the latter of which he makes toward the end of every year, reflect a sense of unity, a search for self, love, and anticipation of the future. These particular works arose as “an attempt to have a diary—I never had one,” he says. “I needed to rediscover myself; see myself from an angle—from a third eye. My art became a mirror, through which I was a reflection.”
“Mister Fly” (2024), charcoal, acrylic, vintage photos, ink, graphite, colored pencil, and black tea on canvas, 147.32 x 119.38 centimeters
Portraits serve as records of activities and experiences, documenting the artist’s observations and referencing history and culture to tell personal stories. He combines images with other mediums like charcoal, acrylic, ink, and repurposed earlier sketches, invoking what he calls “stamps of moments”—a collection of memories viewed through the spectrum of past, present, and future.
“I love that I can reference historical events, stolen African artifacts, and my humble beginnings through a photo,” Odumade tells Colossal. He collages the backgrounds of many compositions with numerous black-and-white images dyed with tea to give an antique appearance. “The vintage brown look of the old photos is to remind viewers about [the] past and to give a ‘test of time’ feeling.”
Five new works will be presented by Unit London at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, which runs from October 10 to 13. Explore more of Odumade’s practice on Instagram.
“My Favorite Albert’s Theory” (2020-2021), charcoal, acrylic, ink, black tea, and sketch paper on canvas, 163 x 148 centimeters. Additional credit to Lekan Abatan
“Seth; Why Run Away From Light Equals Infin9s” (2021-2022), charcoal, graphite, acrylic, ink, sketches, old photos, and black tea on paper. Additional credit to Ken Nwadiogbu
“A Wave to Remember” (2024), charcoal, acrylic, black tea, and vintage photos on canvas, 146.05 x 119.38 centimeters
“Three Sequences” (2021), charcoal, acrylic, black tea, ink, and old photos on canvas, 124 x 97 centimeters. Additional credit to Eshinlokun Wasiu
“First Motion to Fly (Mr. Professor)” (2024), charcoal, acrylic, ink, vintage photos, feather, and black tea on canvas, 147.32 x 119.38 centimeters
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More

portraits

More stories

A Provocative Photography Exhibition Invites You to Experience ‘Chromotherapia’

Gertrude Abercrombie’s Autobiographical Surrealism Traverses Dreams and Reality

In ‘Keep the Kid Alive,’ Arielle Bobb-Willis Reaches for Exuberance

In ‘Hidden Portraits,’ Volker Hermes Reimagines Historical Figures in Overwhelming Frippery

‘The Women Who Changed Photography’ Chronicles 50 Trailblazing Artists

Collaged Portraits by Emma Odumade Draw on the Past to Face the Future

ITALIAN LANGUAGE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE