The Little Gallery

Obiora Udechukwu
New Works

June 1^st- July 20^th, 2006
Reception: Thursday, June 1^st, 6-8pm

Skoto Gallery is pleased to present Obiora Udechukwu : New Works, an exhibition of recent drawings, paintings and prints. The reception is on Thursday, June 1^st, 5-8pm and there will be performances by Nwakego (soprano) with accompaniment by Aya Kato (keyboard) as well as story-telling with musical accompaniment by Oma Chukwurah-Orezabo . The renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is the guest of honor.

Obiora Udechukwu , one of the most influential contemporary artists from Nigeria for several decades, is a visual lyricist, a poet whose mastery of the line and drawing is beyond compare. Since the early 1970s, Udechukwu has been a leading member of the Nsukka School – known for experimentation with traditional Igbo Uli mural and body design. In the late 1970s he became interested in watercolor and Chinese calligraphy, particularly in the juxtaposition of text and image, but also in the lyrical power of lines deployed with brush and calligraphic pen. The combination of visual elements and design sensibilities from Uli and Chinese drawing, in addition to motifs adapted from Nsibidi signs from southeastern Nigeria results in drawings that powerfully dramatize negative and positive spatial tensions, the dialogue of delicate and strong lines, and the dialectic of poetic and dark subject matter. Since the past decade, Udechukwu has included texts written in longhand in English or Igbo in his compositions. When they occur, the texts serve as textural – in other words as design -- elements in the drawings, but he also relies on them to extend or complicate the idea or message already suggested by the drawn image.

The lyrical beauty of Udechukwu’s drawing often belies its deep social commitment. His work has focused at various times on the military dictatorship, official corruption, and the economic devastation wrought by the IMF’s Structural Adjustment Program in Nigeria . Thus, in his drawings and installations he has incorporated passages from writings by major Nigerian public intellectuals, including Achebe , Soyinka , lyrics from the songs of Fela, and extracts from his own poems. Although the texts can often be read quite easily, sometimes they are either illegible or incomprehensible because they are repeated over and over, or adjoined without regard to normative lexis and structure, thereby withholding or deferring their communicative power.

In the drawings presented in this show, Udechukwu uses graphite with such subtlety that reveals the incredible possibilities of the medium. Soft fields of gray become backgrounds for abstract Uli motifs, or strong quirky lines tempered by thin lyrical or swirling ones. From these emerge cosmic elements, animals and plant forms, masks and portraits that, when read, reveal subtly powerful commentaries on contemporary Nigerian and global politics.

National Museum of African American Cinema, Inc. and the New York State Black Films & Video Archives, Inc., presents

JUNE 17, 2006

SAT., June 17, 2006

10AM until 7:00pm ONLY!!!!

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Bldg
163 West.125th Street @7th Ave
New York, New York

FREE ADMISSION
ALL INVITED
212-749-5298

Photographers' Perspectives on Global Warming

The show features the work of five photographers on the

Sections of the show will focus on melting glaciers,
rising sea levels in

Tuvalu

, drought in

Chad

, melting
permafrost in Alaska , the way scientists study global
warming, and a special section on how global warming
will affect the

United States

. The photographers' work shows the extent to which global warming is occurring in every part of the world and the people it is already affecting.

Photographers:

Gary Braasch: A veteran wildlife photographer whose
book on the effects of global warming, Earth Under
Fire, will be released by University of California
Press next year.

Ashley Cooper: A freelance photographer focusing on
global warming, based in Ambleside ,

.

Peter Essick: A veteran photographer for National
Geographic whose work focuses on environmental issues.
Peter's byline has appeared in the magazine more than
fifty times.

Cedric Faimali: A photojournalist with the French
collective, Argos .

Joshua Wolfe: A freelance photographer based in
Brooklyn who has focused his work on global warming.
He is the coordinator of this show.

Current Exhibitions

Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964–1980

In the Spring of 2006, the Studio Museum will present Energy/
Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964–1980, group exhibition guest curated by Dr. Kellie Jones. Energy/Experimentation explores the strong voice of abstract art-making that developed during the second half of the 20th century. Working in both painting and sculpture this group of artists committed themselves to innovation in structure and materials. While figuration of the 1960s and 1970s is well known through the works of Romare Bearden, Betye Saar or artists connected with the Black Arts Movement (focus of the groundbreaking SMH show Tradition and Conflict (1985), less explored abstractionists such as Sam Gilliam, William T. Williams, Al Loving, Joe Overstreet and Howardena Pindell, were steadfast in their use of non-objective visual language. Energy/Experimentation will present the painting and sculpture of 15 artists whose work challenged artistic technical, and social boundaries and assumptions during this period.

Harlem Postcards

Throughout the twentieth century, Harlem has been regarded as a beacon of African-American culture.

Sites such as the Apollo Theater, the Abyssinian Baptist Church and Malcolm X Corner at 125th Street serve as popular postcard images that identify historic moments and places. Today, Harlem continues to expand as a center of cultural and historic activity, and in the fall of 2002 The Studio Museum in Harlem launched an ongoing series that invites contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds to reflect on Harlem as a site for artistic contemplation and production. Installed in the lobby and available in the bookstore, these postcards will represent intimate views and perspectives on Harlem. Artists in this series include Rina Banerjee, Candice Breitz, Lyle Ashton Harris, Adam McEwen.

144 West 125th Street

New York, New York 10027

Tel:212-864-4500

fax: 212-864,4800

In the Wake of Tradition: Encountering

America

among

Bolivia

's Highland Farmers

"For many of the individuals and communities involved, these photographs are the first and only attempt anyone has made to communicate with them for the purpose of expressing their lives--or something of their collective life experience: as a culture, a community or a living history: some of the oldest and most anciently rooted living histories of the Americas, incarnations of those most original of American civilizations."

Evan Abramson's rare, highly intimate vision of the Bolivian Andean indigenous draws its closeness from over two years of life among the rural farmers of Latin America . In the Wake of Tradition explores the concept and identity of

America

in the context of South America 's cultural history, related through the present-day traditions of isolated indigenous communities and the lives of their members within the rugged, rural zones of some of the highest inhabited parts of the Andes .