Adam and Eve ,2019
Provenienza : Private collection, Cape Town.
Litty Contemporary, Cape Town.
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Note : Gerald Chukwuma is a celebrated Nigerian contemporary artist with an increasingly international presence. He is known for his bold, large-scale works created from wood and mostly recycled objects. As seen in Adam and Eve, Chukwuma painstakingly engraves and then joins panels of wood. To this base, he adds paint and attaches pieces of aluminium – old mobile charge cards and empty soft drink cans.
The internationally acclaimed artist El Anatsui is an important influence. Although never studying directly under him, Anatsui taught sculpture at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka whilst Chukwuma was a painting student there. One sees an innovation in techniques and materials that aligns with Anatsui in Chukwuma’s works and the artist credits him with having an immense impact on his seminal wooden pieces.
Chukwuma’s monumental, textural works are richly layered with meaning. He uses traditional Uli and Nsibidi symbols, linking his work to the Nsukka art tradition which expanded and modernised the Igbo cultural aesthetic. He also explores migration – voluntary and forced – as a constant process of transformation and reinvention. Through this he considers the implications of globalisation on his local community.
In 2008 and 2012 Chukwuma emerged as one of the top 3 winners of the prestigious National Arts Competition in Nigeria and in 2011 and 2014 featured on CNN’s Inside Africa programme. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in Africa, Europe and the USA. His work is included in prominent collections including Beth Rudin de Woody, USA; University of Nigeria, Nsukka; The World Bank Collection in Washington D.C; Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) in Nigeria and Museum Azman in Malaysia.
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