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  • More Than Meets The Eye, London
    Kalaeb Abate, It's Not Meant to be Joyous, Mixed Media on Canvas, 75 x 75 cm, 2024

    More Than Meets The Eye

    London 8 October - 16 November 2024

    Rele London is pleased to present 'More Than Meets the Eye' from 8th October to 16th November 2024. A duo exhibition showcasing the exceptional talents of Ethiopian artist Kalaeb Abate and British-born Nigerian artist Dr Hassan Aliyu. This exhibition brings these two distinctive voices together, offering audiences an exploration of layered realities, where initial impressions are only the beginning.

    Each artist’s work challenges viewers to delve deeper, uncovering emotional complexity and fragmented forms beneath the surface. Through a variety of mediums, both Abate and Aliyu explore the intersection of abstraction and surrealism, delivering works that are as thought-provoking as they are visually captivating.

    Both Kalaeb Abate and Dr Hassan Aliyu invite viewers to move beyond surface-level appreciation, urging them to investigate the intricate layers of meaning within their works.

     

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  • Unframed, Lagos
    Josiah C Josiah, The Abyss, Mixed Media on Canvas, 90 x 78 Inches, 2024

    Unframed

    Lagos 31 August - 12 October 2024

    Rele Lagos is pleased to present 'Unframed' by Josiah C. Josiah.

    'Unframed' is a performance-style exhibition, recreating the artist’s studio in the gallery space. Playing on the idea of sublimation, the psychological process through which base and mundane elements are transformed into something noble and fine, the gallery studio will serve as a blank canvas, from which Josiah will be making new work; without a predetermined destination in mind.

    ‘What I am trying to do is scratch the surface, to pull something out of the

    emptiness of it all’ -Josiah

    Artists such as Bruce Nauman, William Kentridge and Henri Matisse have historically investigated the possibilities of creating art within the confines of their studios, presenting the notion that the studio’s function transcends being a built environment – sometimes it moonlights as an intrinsic part of the subject matter. Josiah also seeks to manoeuvre the phenomenology of creating, through his intuitive and patchwork style of working. His passions for swimming and dance are rendered with energetic and elegant strokes of paint and charcoal, enlivening his subjects and giving the impression that they could ripple and flow out of the canvas, onto the walls and into a metaphysical ether.

     

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  • Culture Diaries, Los Angeles
    Malcolm Emilio, Day at the museum, Acrylic and 18k gold leaf on canvas, 66 x 108 Inches, 2020 - 2021

    Culture Diaries

    Los Angeles 28 June - 27 July 2024

    Rele Los Angeles is pleased to announce Culture Diaries, a group exhibition that looks at African-American identity within a contemporary and historical context. Bringing into focus the plurality and complexity of what it means to be both Afro-descendent and American, guest curator Dominique Clayton draws in artists of varied cultural, social, economic and linguistic backgrounds, including those multi-generationally American and those decidedly so. 

     

     

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  • Strecthing the Light, London
    Gaia Ozwyn, The Quiet Rebellion of Being, 23 x 27 Inches, 2024

    Strecthing the Light

    London 20 June - 26 July 2024

    "'Stretching The Light' presents works by six contemporary artists who explore the delicate balance between figuration and abstraction. Through the interplay of light and darkness—chiaroscuro—the use of limited palettes, and slow motion, the artists have created works that challenge straightforward categorization.

     

    Gaia Ozwyn’s works combine concrete and oil paint on linen to evoke sublime skyscapes, blending the solidity of concrete with the fluidity of oil paint to create scenes that hover between the real and the imagined. Hamed Maiye’s works feature intricate lace patterns intermingled with dark, obscured forms, while Paul Majek presents figures seated in dreamy, hazy blue interiors. Daena Ladeesse’s dynamic, vivid paintings present abstracted figures that dance in fluid movements and forms.

     

    Shannon Bono’s abstract works showcase innovations in the artist’s practice with a frame she designed, reminiscent of the axes on which planets orbit. Meanwhile, Tami Soji-Akinyemi’s limited palette of grey, white, and blue hues emphasizes the subtlety and depth that can be achieved with restrained use of colour.

     

     
     
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  • Woven Sanctuaries, Los Angeles
    Fiker Solomon,Web of life 10, Jute,sisal and cotton threads, 57 x 36 Inches, 2023.

    Woven Sanctuaries

    Los Angeles 3 May - 22 June 2024

    Rele Los Angeles is pleased to announce Woven Sanctuaries, a group exhibition bringing together the work of seven female artists from Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia, which together document complex personal and social landscapes that textiles make possible. Utilizing found materials as well as symbolically-laden fabrics such as cloth and jute, these artists collapse conventions of space and time in order to explore grief, loss, joy, wonder, personal agency and coming of age.

     In this exhibition, materials are the message. Cloth is sacred in many African societies – it is woven in the home, primarily by women, based on traditions that have been passed down over generations. Its domestic connotations provide it a texture and intimacy that other art practices lack. 

     
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  • Marcellina Akpojotor: Joy of more Worlds, London
    Marcellina Akpojotor, Weekend with Grandma, Fabric, charcoal on paper and acrylic on canvas, 96 x 76 Inches, 2022.

    Marcellina Akpojotor: Joy of more Worlds

    London 13 April - 8 June 2024

    Employing collaging and traditional painting techniques, Marcellina Akpojotor’s work dialogues with familial history, the evolving nature of archives and an intimate celebration of memories and generational legacy. Building upon her current explorations of her maternal bloodline across generations as well as her series ‘Kesiena Diaries’, this body of work focuses on the artist’s daughter, presenting us with scenes of intimacy and family life. Through familiar and idyllic scenes, Akpojotor takes the viewer on a journey through parenthood. A journey that leaps across time, documenting intimate lives in stages. Here, she creates vivid compositions focused on capturing the immediacy of a moment, engaged simultaneously in the act of creating and archiving memories. 

     
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  • Beyond Veils, Group Exhibition
    Tizta Berhanu, Shared Melancholy , Oil on Canvas, 47 x 45 Inches, 2022.

    Beyond Veils

    Group Exhibition 5 March - 4 May 2024

    Rele, Lagos is pleased to present Beyond Veils a group exhibition presenting works from Progress Nyandoro (Zimbabwe), Sedireng Mothibatsela (Botswana), Tizta Berhanu (Ethiopia) and Diana Ejaita (Nigeria/Italy).

    Beyond Veils is an examination of existence through an engagement with inner landscapes of the body, mind and the otherworldly. From the surreal to the spiritual, works in this exhibition transcends the corporeality of the body in engaging with the intimate, often changing and highly contested world of the interior narrating real-life experiences like intimacy, mutual relation, agency and the experience of knowledge.

     

     

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  • Mapping Structures: Across Worlds, Los Angeles
    Patrick Akpojotor, Sunset in Jumeirah, Acrylic on Canvas, 77 x 20 Inches, 2022.

    Mapping Structures: Across Worlds

    Los Angeles 27 February - 25 April 2024

    The three-dimensional space plays a fundamental role in our perception and understanding of the physical world. It establishes points of existence, movement and relation between objects. From different theories on its mode of existence — as an entity on its own, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework —  the three-dimensional space serves as the structural basis for the creation of tangible realities. Whole communities, economies and modes of living arise from the construction, organization and movement of objects within diverse spatial contexts. How then do we understand the multiple realities of being and existing, access and movement, within this three-dimensionality?

     
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  • Peju Alatise: We came with the last Rain, London
    Peju Alatise, This Other Side (V),Wood, plaster cast with resin, acrylic paint, mild steel, stainless-steel mirror. (Window size- 48 x 48 x 5 Inches), 2022

    Peju Alatise: We came with the last Rain

    London 21 February - 23 March 2024

    Dear Sim, 

    It rains in my dreams. Every time I close my eyes, I see rain. Big fat glistening silver droplets. 

    Do you remember when we asked our good witch how the clouds become rain? She said the clouds were wings of children that have never visited earth. She said when the children wash their dirty wings, it rains on us. But we didn't believe her; there is no dirt in the sky!

    SIM! She is not entirely wrong. Last night I dreamed of rain yet again. Wind swept me up sky high. And I saw it for myself. There are many types of clouds. There are special clouds that are floating babies sleeping in nests like smoke. 

    Orunmenitomala took me from Wind and walked me through Orun. Sim, the nests look like smoke but they are really music, strings of music tightly woven together. The music keeps the babies asleep. Orunmenitomala did not speak but I understood all. Orun's words are in the music. 

     

     
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  • What's in a Name?, Los Angeles
    IyunOla Sanyaolu, A daisy by any other name won't smell as sweet, Oil on Canvas, 42 x 66 Inches, 2023.

    What's in a Name?

    Los Angeles 20 January - 24 February 2024

    Naming forms a very complex and vital part of human culture and language. From its political uses in acts of erasure and reclaiming to its practical and intimate roles within private and public spaces, names serve to allude to and confirm the presence of a thing. The naming or re-naming of a thing helps to establish an existing identity or herald a new one. In several African societies, names often reflect cultural, religious and ethnic identity. Often designed as an elaborate ceremony that happens days after birth and involves contributions from extended family and community, the naming of a child is a sacred act that can reflect the family's hopes, beliefs, situations and values.

    To commemorate the opening of Rele’s new space in Los Angeles, the gallery presents work by represented artists in dialogue with the concept of naming, mainly by exploring their own names. 

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  • Young Contemporaries 2024, Lagos

    David Ngaji, Parable of the last man, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 48 Inches, 2023

    Young Contemporaries 2024

    Lagos 7 January - 10 February 2024

    The Rele Arts Foundation is pleased to present the 9th edition of the Young Contemporaries programme. Initiated in 2016, the programme identifies, mentors and promotes early-career artists from Africa, by equipping them with tools and resources for artistic development.

     

    Each year, the Foundation guides artists via its boot camp and residency programme in Ado-Ekiti towards the creation of critical projects, encouraging innovative explorations of existing inquiries as well as the birth of fresh ideas. This year, the artists received guidance under the mentorship of Dr. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture at MOMA, NewYork).

     

     

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  • It's A wRap, Group Exhibition
    Marcellina Akpojotor, Dear Elizabeth, 2023, Fabric, Paper and Acrylic on Canvas, 60 x 48 in

    It's A wRap

    Group Exhibition 5 - 31 December 2023

    LAGOS (DECEMBER 5 - DECEMBER 31, 2023)

     

    The exhibition delves into the intricate interiority that characterizes sober reflections on endings and the cyclical nature of beginnings. This exhibition mirrors the nuanced and contemplative journey towards closure, inviting viewers to contemplate personal and collective conclusions and the aftermath–the conclusion of one phase emerging as a threshold and marking the inception of another.

     

    It features works that compellingly position figures–some in a stance of defiant retreat–creating a thought-provoking visual narrative that serve as focal points within the artworks, offering a nuanced exploration of human emotions and responses to endings. Endings, portrayed as reflective moments, unveil the transformative power that resides within farewells and the cycle that continues afterwards.

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  • Art Basel Miami 2023, 'An Attempt At Rest' - Ndidi Emefiele
    Ndidi Emefiele, Afternoon Shower III, 2023, Acrylic and Compact Disk on Canvas, 120 x 120 cm,

    Art Basel Miami 2023

    'An Attempt At Rest' - Ndidi Emefiele

    DECEMBER 8 - 10, 2023  |  NOVA BOOTH N3, ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

     

    For Art Basel Miami Beach 2023, Rele Gallery will present a solo presentation of a new body of work titled An attempt at rest by UK-based Nigerian artist Ndidi Emefiele. 

     

    Primarily concerned with the notion of the Black woman at rest, the series presents layered scenes of relaxation and idleness in contrast to misogynist systems that allow for the exploitation and undervaluation of the work of women. Emefiele draws from her experiences growing up in Nigeria, in an environment where girls and women are overworked and held to higher standards than their male counterparts. 

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