Jamiu Agboke - Vertigo

Vertigo is Jamiu Agboke's first solo exhibition in Paris. Inspired by the title of one of the presented works, a large abstract landscape imbued in vibrant colours and strong gestures, it also refers to the venue's historic host, the interior designer Andrée Putman, renowned for the minimalism and precision of her creations, one also bearing the same name as the exhibition. In the spacious and open interior of her former loft, twelve new canvases by the London-based artist of Nigerian origin engage in dialogue, unleashing the incandescent, solar, dazzling and even acid colours of his signature palette of greens, yellows, browns and oranges.

Jamiu Agboke's theme is nature. The land, the skies, the sea, vegetation, trees and ponds are his recurring themes. He paints perceived places to reembark on the path towards and even evoke sensations of them. Jamiu Agboke strives to evoke the experience of the landscape and of the moment, what the body recalls.

The young painter, notably an admirer of Bonnard, whose exhibition The Colour of Memory, presented at the Tate Modern in 2019, made a mark on him, aims to bear witness to, capture and translate nature in movement, giving substance, texture and pictorialism to its different states: temperature, wind and the warmth of the sun. He does so on canvas, aluminium or copper in a series of works large and small, each masterfully conveying the unbridled dance of movement and colour. Sensory and magnetic, the paintings of Jamiu Agboke, who graduated from the Royal Drawing School of London in 2022, radiate balance and harmony between movement and colour, memory and the moment, large and small, work and exhibition space. The brush strokes engage in a dialogue of horizontality and verticality on the surface, conferring structure on the painting and sense on the depicted image. The artist superimposes layers and planes, making no secret of this gesture. A gesture that prevails in all its obviousness, fluidity and movement, ultimately distancing him from his quest as it jeopardises the image, capturing the gaze as the figure tends to melt away from his works. In this series of canvases, striking in their intensity and fresh from his London atelier, colour and painting rub shoulders to unleash all their power and colours. This culminates in a unique aura that charges the space with a whole new energy.

Barbara Soyer

-

Jamiu Agboke (b. 1989, Lagos, Nigeria) lives and works in London. In April 2022, he graduated at the Royal Drawing School.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Upcoming

. April 2024, Sea View, Los Angeles, California

Past

. February 2024, Vertigo, in collaboration with Valerio Polimeno, France

. November 2023, Artissima, Turin, Italy
. May - June 2023, Dark Waters, curated by Sayori Radda, VIN VIN Naples, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

. February 2024,Felix Art Fair, Los Angeles, presented by Sea View, Los Angeles, California

. July - September 2023 - White Cube Bermondsay (online)

. May - June 2023, Galerie Marguo Paris . Project Space, Kane Le Bain, 2023 . Jack Barret, New York, 2023 . VIN VIN Vienna, 2022

. Guts Gallery, 2022 . The Split Gallery, 2022