Suffering & smiling Print

Gabriel Jideonwor (1991), studied painting and graduated at Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) in Art and Industrial Design in 2015. As a young artist Jideonwor experimented in the past years with various styles moving from realism and impressionism to a more expressionistic painting style with a surrealistic twist an abstracts. His colorful , expressive portraits and urban sceneries reflect on human interaction and emotions in modern African societies, seamlessly mixing African culture and symbolism in a universal contemporary setting. Over the past four years, Jideonwor has been exhibiting in various exhibitions and art festivals in Nigeria, South-Africa, UK, Luxembourg and The Netherlands and in the previous Ghent Art Fair, Belgium in September 2019. In addition, he runs a successful practice and gallery located in lekki Lagos, Nigeria, growing local and international artists all over the world. ARTISTIC STATEMENT As an artist I reflect on the urban African environment I live in and how this environment fits within the wider global context. It is a complex world full of conflicts, corruption, inequalities and contradictions. It is also a great world for its resilient, cheerful and courageous people, its community and family values, its rich and diverse traditions, its vivid arts and cultures and its beautiful nature. As a black African artist, I feel very much connected to this rich heritage and proud of being part of it. At the same time, it saddens me to observe the many issues of violence, discrimination and injustice happening in societies today. It’s not just the simple black against white racial picture, as these very issues are suffered in our own black African communities as well. Each society has its own issues due to the way we interact with one another, based on greed or fear and distrust for the otherness we do not know. We all have an individual choice though to interact differently and shape societies differently tomorrow. My work seeks to explore the impact of human interactions in view of universal human values, emotions and the need for human dignity that connect us all underneath our differences. It reveals in a contemporary way the incredible richness of our heritage to others who may not know. It aims to encourage curiosity and openness towards diversity, to nourish renewed awareness, understanding, self-confidence and trust. 
Gabriel Jideonwor