Get Ready to Bid: ARTSPLIT’s April Anniversary Auction Showcases Two Talented African Artists
ARTSPLIT is thrilled to present its 1st-anniversary auction this April, featuring the oeuvres of two exceptional Nigerian artists, Okpu Eze and Reuben Ugbine, whose work has never before been available on the ARTSPLIT platform.
While their approaches to the medium differ, both artists demonstrate mastery of the medium in their ability to convey emotion, movement, and resilience through their respective perspectives on the human form.
Reuben Ugbine was born in Nigeria in 1956 and is considered one of the foremost contemporary artists in Africa. Raised in a family of traditional carvers, Ugbine received a formal education in Fine Arts at the University of Benin. His art style reflects his Nigerian culture and heritage, blending traditional African art with modern techniques. Ugbine’s paintings often depict everyday scenes from Nigerian life and incorporate elements of traditional African art, such as masks and ceremonial objects.
Reuben Ugbine’s Untitled I, 2012 features a female figure with looped arms resembling flared butterfly wings, evoking restrained emotion and graceful elegance. The stylised anatomy flows smoothly, despite the tragic, neckless head suggesting a stricken profile. Ugbine’s minimalist approach allows the essential beauty to emerge, depicting the protagonist’s painful loads of existence with triumphant gestures, emerging like a young butterfly spreading and testing its wings for the first flight, reflecting the resilience of his nation’s people in turbulent times.
He has been featured in numerous exhibitions and art fairs worldwide and represented Nigeria at the Venice Biennale in 1988. Sadly, Ugbine passed away in 2021, but his legacy lives on.
Okpu Eze, also born in Nigeria, is a renowned artist known for his unique style that combines African traditions with modern techniques. His work draws inspiration from his Igbo culture and incorporates mythology and spiritual elements, such as traditional masquerades and ancestral figures.
Okpu Eze’s contributions to the world of art cannot be overstated. His unique blend of traditional African art and modern techniques has helped to elevate African art and the Igbo culture to a global stage.
Okpu Eze’s Untitled I, 1982 reveals a departure from his typical enigmatic abstract paintings to more naturalistic figures, depicted in a close-up view of a minstrel group in performance. The painting borrows from his sculptural aesthetic with demonstrative postures and motion, exemplifying his thematic insight in the spatial balancing of colours and geometry. The painting juxtaposes the cool and warm to denote the interaction of the imaginative and physical realms.
He represented Nigeria at the 1984 Venice Biennale and was an important art critic in his time, with his vast knowledge of Nigerian visual art evident in his writings.
As ARTSPLIT celebrates its first anniversary, this auction promises to bring incredible value to art investors worldwide. Both Ugbine and Eze have left an indelible mark on the world of contemporary African art, and their pieces are sure to be highly sought after.
Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of history and bid on these incredible works of art.
