Hooks-Epstein Galleries proudly presents "RECONCILIATION", an exhibition of new works on paper by Houston-based artist, Kingsley Onyeiwu. The exhibition will open on Saturday, December 7, 2024 and a Reception for the Artist will take place from 5:00–7:00 P.M. The exhibition will continue through Saturday, January 11, 2025.
***PLEASE NOTE: A special Artist Conversation with Kingsley Onyeiwu and artist Robert Pruitt will take place on Saturday, December 28, 2024 from 1:00–3:00 P.M.***
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Kingsley Onyeiwu’s works embodies a blend of traditional and contemporary aesthetics. The reoccurring motif of women subjects in his works serves as a visual representation of the spiritual role women of the diaspora possess as the keepers of the culture and heritage as is the belief and practice in Igboland. His admiration of figurative works of art, as well as his deep appreciation for the techniques of the old masters, is projected into a metamodernist’s vision and recreation—centered on the confluence of both Western influence and the expansion of the African diaspora.
Being a proponent of the philosophy of what an Afropolitan is according to Taiye Selasi and Achille Mbembe’s description of the term, He sees himself as an expatriate of Nigeria who migrated to Houston, Texas at a young age. Since this migration, He has been exposed to a multicultural human experience, relationships and rituals that has helped in redefining his existence far removed from outdated western ideologies of what Africans are in a metamodern society. His aim is to have a dialogue with society by creating iconographies which embodies multiculturalism and spiritual awakening, using numerous experienced rituals as an analogical base for a post-colonial conversation on afropolitanism.
