#SIC5 - V in Focus
The theme for this 5th edition is quite fitting. We have 5 exhibiting artists, representing 5 countries, exhibiting 5 competitive artworks in the 5th edition of small & Iconic.
This edition is a captivating journey of self-discovery, human nature, and how man reconnects with self, each other, and with nature.
Meet the Artists
Lambert Shumbusho
“As an artist, I am universal. My work is universal because I am using resources that are kindly appreciated all over the world. Some people may think that I drive around looking for wood in bushes and streams of water.
That is true, but I like to think that the wood is looking for me, waiting to be discovered and worked on. Even after collecting wood, I don’t get to work on it until the wood invites me”
- Lambert Shumbusho
Lambert Shumbusho has an interesting genealogy. Born in France to Rwandan parents, he has lived in Nigeria for several decades. A Harvard-trained Petroleum Lawyer, he is an advocate for self-education which has enabled him to build his expertise as an artist.
For Lambert, finding wood is like finding a rare gem of high value and turning it into beautiful, artistic, and functional art. His typical choice of wood is ancient wood such as Iroko. The first time he worked with wood was a little over 20 years ago when he created a tiny stool for his son. That was a transformative experience that set his trajectory as an artist because he was awakened to the versatility and possibilities of wood as a medium.
When the wood calls, Lambert answers. After gathering the wood, he sometimes goes for years without touching it, and at other times, he may start working on a piece, and abandon it just to return to it a few weeks, months, or even years later. He lets the wood decide and leads him to what to create. He does not see challenges in working in his medium. He strongly believes he is his own challenge and that drives him.
He produces all his works locally in Lagos, Nigeria.
Silas Abrifor
“In my paintings, I try to portray self-awakening, political consciousness and spiritual wellness; and their effect on our society”
-Silas Abrifor
Silas Abrifor is a Nigerian-born painter and multi-media artist with an exciting and imaginative voice in the genres of painting and digital art. He uses his art as a medium to depict his understanding of life and world problems. His works seek to awaken the subconscious mind and also to influence minds to think positively and beyond what we are being taught.
He graduated with accolades for his work and ideas from Delta State University with a bachelor’s degree in art and he majored in painting. When starting Silas experimented with various mediums in the fine and visual arts, including non-traditional disciplines like graphic art, novels, and comic book drawings. This area of interest honed his drawing skills and enhanced the artist’s style across genres.
Gregarious and lively in temperament and style, Silas’s deeply expressive and signature style as a painter also derives from his love of humanity, studying human interaction, dreaming and colour which lends a strong visual and emotional texture to his work, and one that is also personal.
The artist also enjoys using mixed media forms and bold, graphic patterns in his work which he creates when he combines charcoal, acrylics, pastels, acrylic markers and other materials. All of these materials are enhanced and further inspired by what is available in his environment which he uses to further express himself.
He has participated in a few group shows including the Universal Studio of Arts, Delta State University departmental exhibitions, Two Brothers and One Lumbo, The Universe according to Silas Abrifor and Fresh Paint in the black-open studio with contemporary painters of colour, Madlozi art gallery.
Justine Gaga
“Through my work, I integrate the existential experience of fragility, loneliness, and isolation into works that are characterized by resistance and revolt.”
- Justine Gaga
Justine Gaga lives and works in Douala. She is a multiform artist practising painting, sculpture, installations, performance, video, and photography. She is a Project Manager at Artbakery.
The plinth of her work is the notion of loneliness with connected themes such as exile, isolation, and immigration, as well as notions of psychological fences and borders. Right after high school, where she studied mathematics and science, she encountered some artists, notably Joe Kessy and Angel, who fed my passion for visual arts; that’s how she decided to enter a two-year workshop in visual arts at Viking’s Studio (Viking is a local doyen in visual arts). In 2003, she trained in photography and visual arts at Pierre Metambou’s Studio in Yaoundé, and in 2005 she entered residency in ArtBakery (a contemporary laboratory for creation) founded by Goddy Leye, that residency turned out to be most important because it gave her access to a formal education and expertise in visual arts, at a moment when my means did not allow me such a path.
She participated in the project ExitTour which strengthened her skills and allowed her to grow professionally. Her work has been shown in several countries, including Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Mali, Botswana, Senegal, South Africa, Colombia, Spain, USA, France, Germany, Holland, Italy.
O'Dare Adenuga
“I see all materials as messengers and prophets or voices in the wilderness that need to be heard, so I pick them, respect them and use them according to their gospel to create Art”
O’Dare Adenuga
Born in 1982 to art-loving parents, Dare Adenuga’s talent was subconsciously inspired and nurtured through the likes of Pa Bruce Onabrakpeya, David Dale and many others. He studied Art at the Yaba College of Technology where he began to take part in student exhibitions. Some of these were Beautiful Nigeria at the National Museum, Onikan, Olokun Art Festival in Badagary, and the 2010 UBA Africa Day in, Marina, Lagos.
His works cut across humane traits of character with reference to the benevolent and malevolent influences on their environment. His methodology revolves around the exploration of unconventional materials like yarn of ropes, threads and fabric to produce fluid relief and sculptural artworks that capture enjoyable contours of human forms and movement that interpret the flexibility of life in relation to human characterism influenced by nature.
He owns a personal studio where he has been a practising full-time studio artist and has continued participating in exhibitions and Art projects such as “The Root” at the National Museum, Onikan, Prince Charles's Royal Visit at the British Council, “It’s Not furniture” by the Temple management company, among others.
Thabiso Dakamela
“In my paintings, I try to portray self-awakening, political consciousness and spiritual wellness; and their effect on our society”
- Thabiso Dakamela
Thabiso Dakamela was born in 1994 to a Venda father and a Ndebele mother, and he draws inspiration from his everyday life and his interactions with others.
He is a multi-disciplinary artist who for nearly a decade has practised art professionally in Johannesburg and abroad, hosting two solo shows in 2021 and 2022, and numerous group exhibitions. Today, his works have become prized pieces within and outside South Africa and the world. He was featured in 2020 in The Art Times Magazine and SABC’s Mzansi Insider among other notable mentions.
His recent work reconciles different aspects, components, and features of the self. From the personality projected to the outside world to the segments known only to ourselves, his works tend to illustrate and represent different parts of our nature, our character, our ego, and our temperament. Mimicking the unprecedented rhythm of the sea, he takes us through different factions of his personality traits through the depiction of various personas that can be found in a specific locale. In this body of work, Dakamela creates expressive reflections of the vibrations and energies he encounters and notes the inextricable interconnectedness of all living beings.
Dakamela further notes the duality of life as he puts into perspective and contrasts light reflected in emotions such as joy, bliss, freedom, and contentment with the darker aspects of life such as guilt, pain, insecurities, and fear. Noting this, Dakamela advocates for the acknowledgement and balance of the two polarities of light and dark in attempts to centralize and ground oneself in the end and flow of life. Evocative of the eternal nature of the ocean,
Dakamela predominantly uses shades of blue to explore notions of self-awareness, learning, spirituality, strength, and vulnerability and to express further the importance of introspective, solitude balanced out with the amiable effect of companionship.