Jegede’s Peregrinations for display

The event which will run from April 30th to May 12th, 2011 will feature works from the artist’s Abuja series, and from his Niger Delta Series amongst others. While describing his art, Dr. Jegede, explained that, “My art is cathartic. It is an averment of my personal aesthetics: an articulation of the pangs and anxieties, […]

The event which will run from April 30th to May 12th, 2011 will feature works from the artist’s Abuja series, and from his Niger Delta Series amongst others.

While describing his art, Dr. Jegede, explained that, “My art is cathartic. It is an averment of my personal aesthetics: an articulation of the pangs and anxieties, the socio-cultural bemusements and conflicts, and the political conundrums and economic predilections that have continued to assault my sensibilities as a Diasporic citizen.

Regarding his recent trend, he said, “In recent decades, my creative temper has become increasingly apathetic to the production of art that cosmetizes. The social, intellectual, and emotional tensions imposed by voluntary exile—the contradictions inherent in living in an adopted home but incapable of, or unwilling to, sever the umbilical cord to my ancestral roots—are confronted, addressed, but remain unresolved in my art. My canvases function as receptacles: archives for deeply personal visual soliloquies that are uttered on those occasions when the need for visual pungency trumps the desire for the promulgation of beauty.”

“In the two intervening decades”, Jegede said, “since my voluntary peregrinations, my work has become a platform for parsing the anguish that is a concomitant of the aborted dreams that Nigeria emblematizes. From the Niger-Delta imbroglio and the government’s shocking tepidity in responding to the massive environmental degradation that has become a perennial issue, to the political charade in which political actors out-compete themselves in plundering the collective wealth, Nigeria has  become—or should become—the politically sensitive artist’s canvas.”

In a bid to conscientize the citizenry to the squandering of Nigeria’s human and natural riches, and in stemming the promotion of the culture of self-aggrandizement by the political class, the artist stands for an art that nags our social conscience.

The Ikere-Ekiti born master artist and first class graduate of the Fine Art Department of the Ahmadu Bello University is currently Professor of Art History in the Department of Art at the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (U.S.A).