Rele London is proud to present ‘Pink // Blue’, a solo exhibition by Nigerian artist Ameh Egwuh. This series of painted works on canvas explores the complexities of masculinity, challenging the limitations of traditional, non-normative narratives. Drawing upon the historical and cultural associations of pink and blue, Egwuh subverts these conventional colour codes, employing them to deconstruct reductive and harmful clichés surrounding modern masculinities.
Traditionally associated with femininity and masculinity, respectively, the colours used here are not merely aesthetic choices; they reflect deeply ingrained societal expectations and performative aspects of gender. By subverting these binary associations, Egwuh invites viewers to question the fluidity and performative nature of gender, encouraging for a deeper engagement with the multifaceted experiences of modern men in contemporary society. Pink is conventionally used to signify femininity and vulnerability - the pink underbelly, the soft, warm parts - contrasted with blue, a pigment that can be viewed as cold and sterile. Restricting himself to a finite palette, Egwuh masterfully unsettles fixed expectations, re-imagining and re-fashioning masculine identities with a nuanced and critical eye.
Each painting is a snapshot, a moment of intense emotion, frozen and expanded. An instance is stretched out to reveal a complex interior landscape of emotion. With this, the painter argues for nuanced pause; stillness, a tender moment of reflexity, allowing the viewer to drop into the feeling. Maintaining his characteristic use of lines and blocking, the bodies held within the frame are distinct in form, but their faces reveal no detail. Obscured and inscrutable, the viewer is invited to read themselves into the expression. Without obvious facial cues to register tone, how else do we connote expressions of feeling?
In ‘Portrait of Shame’, an acrylic painting on canvas in hues of cobalt, navy and saxe, the upper half of a male torso, from just under the shoulders, is cut out of frame. Egwuh is concerned with the relationship between vulnerability and shame, and the ways in which indignity is used as a social mechanism of control and domination. In others, the body in the frame is met with the intimacy of another; a hug, a touch. An embrace.
Ameh Egwuh (born 1996) is an artist whose paintings are characterised by a fascination with the line. He studied Fine and Applied Art at Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State.