FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING II

Press Release

Group Show: Visual Exploration VII

Ogirikan Gallery is thrilled to announce the Seventh installment of its acclaimed “Visual Explorations” series, an exhibition showcasing the remarkable talents of Nine career Nigerian artists.

This online exhibition invites art enthusiasts, collectors, and the global public to experience the vibrant artistic heritage of West Africa from the comfort of their own spaces. The carefully curated showcase features a diverse array of media and artistic styles, offering a captivating journey through the region’s rich cultural landscape.

The featured artists bring forth a unique blend of traditional and contemporary influences, creating a dynamic and immersive visual experience. Ogirikan Gallery is proud to provide a digital platform for these innovative artists to share their perspectives, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of West African art.

Ubong Ettebong

Ubong Ettebong (born 2001) is a figurative painter based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and a recent BFA graduate from the University of Uyo

Ubong’s paintings are a reflection of his current and prior surroundings. Art, he believes, is his gift and connection to the world. In his works, he explores the following themes: self-discovery, self-realization, freedom, equality, and inner-happiness. He hopes that his works would have an emotional and psychological impact on his audience.

Ambrose Mordi

Mordi’s paintings explore memory and the fragmented self through layered, muted surfaces. Figures and objects emerge, erode, and reconstruct, resisting fixed narrative. The work registers identity as an accumulation of time, gesture, and revision.

Born and trained in the city, Mordi documents rapid change while honoring the resilience, labor, and rituals of ordinary people. His canvases serve as both record and tribute — capturing survival, culture, and dignity in daily struggle.

Omotayo Ambali is a visual artist, with a visible passion for art at a tender age. He paints and draws human figures in their active or vulnerable moments. Omotayo is quite a controversial artist and sometimes loves to portray human habits that are publicly questioned or criticised. He works with a variety of medium such as acrylic paint, pastel, ink and graphite.

Edet Uweh

Rembrandt’s bright style and expert use of light inspired Edet Uweh’s work, which shows his love of Renaissance and Medieval masterworks. His use of strong value contrasts, harmonized hues, and powerful compositions reflects his ancestors’ style.

The artist’s vision is expressed in oil, his favored media. Its pliability and slow drying time allow Edet to directly connect with his materials, enabling an adventurous creative process. Due to need and invention, his precise drawings are now in pen and ink.

Edet Uweh’s story shows inventive tenacity despite all difficulties. His rise from early doodles to complex allegorical tales shows his dedication to global communication via art. As Uweh’s creative journey continues, his contributions deepen modern realism, establishing him as a rising star.

Femi Adeleke

Femi Adeleke (Born in 1996) ,is a contemporary visual artist from  Osun state currently working in Lagos. Adeleke works in mixed media figurative painting, rendering youth in states of introspection and internal conflict. Figures appear in pairs and groups, where identity registers through relationship and community. Through layered impasto, thick strokes accumulate as physical records of decision, mirroring the psychological complexity of development.

The paintings hold tension between individual thought and collective belonging. Moments of quiet reflection are rendered with density and friction. Through this interplay of surface and subject, Femi Adeleke charts how experience settles into the body and onto the canvas.

Izuchukwu Luther Akunne

Izuchukwu Luther Akunne (b. 1997, Nigeria) is a Lagos-based painter known for his contemplative “window series” and socially engaged practice. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas and paper, he captures figures in moments of quiet reflection — often positioned beside windows or gazing outward — while using everyday activity to explore focus, space, and resilience.

Eyituoyomi Martins Ewetan

Eyituoyomi Martins Ewetan is a Nigerian artist with a background in civil engineering whose journey into art began with sketching during college. His work blends abstract, figurative, and contemporary styles, often developed from playful thumbnail sketches and caricature-like forms.

Drawing inspiration from music, architecture, and African heritage, Ewetan creates vibrant, thought-provoking pieces that explore identity, self-awareness, and cultural tradition. Known for his bold use of color—especially magenta—he paints with passion and authenticity.