DOWNLOAD THE DIGITAL CATALOGUE HERE
Ed Cross is delighted to present Broad Streets, new portrait works by British-based Nigerian artist Abdulrazaq Awofeso (b. 1978, Lagos, Nigeria).
Building on concepts explored in his 1-54 Marrakech presentation of the same name, Awofeso's solo show Broad Streets comprises more than a dozen new sculptural figures and tableaus collaged from discarded wooden pallets. Based on characters observed and encountered by the artist on two roads with the same name – one a hub of nightlife and socialising in Birmingham, UK, and the other a commercial centre in Lagos, Nigeria – Broad Streets draws parallels between the cities and the people who inhabit them.
Used for the transportation of goods around the world, Awofeso’s pallet portraits are loaded with connotations of human migration, as well as referring to the artist’s own frequent journeys through Africa and Europe. Dismantling the pallets, Awofeso uses the timber to represent human figures in wall reliefs, freestanding sculptures and installations. Individually carved and painted by hand, their physical traits and vibrant colours are inspired by encounters with people in different cities and subcultures. Any suggestion of uniformity – or a kind of universal portrait – is contradicted by the distinctiveness of each figure, conveying the artist’s resistance to simplistic cultural or racial categorisation.
In Broad Streets, Awofeso collapses the distance between two bustling thoroughfares, all the while underscoring the unassailable specificity of the individuals who comprise the subjects of his portraits. Shown en masse, the effect is of encountering a crowd; considered singularly, each figure reveals their own impossibly specific traits, tied to time, place and circumstance. Counterintuitively, it is this infinite variability that Awofeso’s Broad Street patrons have in common.
“We are very excited about Abdulrazaq’s practice and this, his first solo show with the gallery. The exhibition represents the next chapter in the artist’s journey following on from his acclaimed solo exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham last year and built on years of creative development in Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and Europe.” - Ed Cross, Director
