Jari, Jaji, Danjuma, Lasisi bring ‘Santi’ to Abuja

The artists who are lecturers at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria will be exhibiting works which reflect the experiences of their different backgrounds on November 6 at the Thought Pyramid Gallery. According to a release by the exhibition’s curator, Gambo Dunia, of ABU, “‘Santi’ is a Hausa word which connotes a situation whereby someone […]

The artists who are lecturers at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria will be exhibiting works which reflect the experiences of their different backgrounds on November 6 at the Thought Pyramid Gallery.

According to a release by the exhibition’s curator, Gambo Dunia, of ABU, “‘Santi’ is a Hausa word which connotes a situation whereby someone gets carried away and makes an involuntary comment or statement. The idea of Santi becomes apt in art because of the tendency for people to be held spellbound during an exhibition like this that displays a variety of forms and expression.”

“The artists come from the same background with varied experiences. These experiences are manifested in the variety of works that will be displayed.”

Dunia added that the composition of the artists for the exhibition is such that, by the artist’s personalities and professional callings, they will likely evoke a ‘Santi’.

“This is for a number of reasons; they are all ABU graduates; they are professionals to the core; and they represent different genres and perspective of art.

Jari recently has been exploring with discarded pages of magazines and fabric cut-offs. He prefers that viewers of his work engage themselves with the work.

Danjuma on the other hand, responds to the human experiences around him, as manifested mostly, in faces. He considers humans as the most important form that God created and therefore available for exploration. His paintings are done with traditional painting media. These two artists are the painters in the group.

Jaji and Lasisi are the sculptors.

However, Lasisi paints as much as he sculpts. He combines sculpture sometimes with painting in an innovation that exhibits canvas clad sculptures. His passion for found-objects has inspired most of his sculpture creations.

Jaji on his part is a realist. He mostly distorts and elongates/ exaggerates his figures, largely to emphasize the message. He works mostly on conventional sculpture materials.