The VSPACE online summer show is designed to provide a spotlight on a young emerging artist, specifically an artist who might conceivably not have any platform in which to show their work to a wider audience. Tomiwa Arobieke, a twenty-year-old Nigerian painter who lives and works in the city of Ibadan (NG) is this summer seasons spotlighted young artist.
The work, entitled Blind Love demonstrates a strong grasp of history, of people, the painted image contains a myriad of clues and references not only of his local surroundings but also looking across the ocean to the new world, countries such as America, the viewer is transported to the era of American black musicians of the 1930's right up to post-war African American soul music of the 1950's and 1960's.
Early 20th century photography also plays an important role, pioneering Great Depression era photographers such as Dorothea Lange, or slightly later exponents of this medium such as Jack Delano whose early work focused on migrant workers, tobacco farmers or agricultural workers and such like, all the time showing an honest portrayal of what he saw.
Arobieke has incorporated these influences, the strong yet perhaps uncertain playful pose of the figures, the unequivocal male gaze of someone whose life has perhaps seen a future, the female and male figures echoing and symbolising through fashion prewar and post-war worlds.
Tomiwa Arobieke
Blind Love , 2023
Acrylic on canvas
122 x 91.5 cm / 48 x 36 in
