Uthman Wahaab
In the Flesh
September 3-October 4, 2021
Opening September 7, 4 -6 pm.
Wahaab is known for his masterful rendering of voluptuous and triumphant female bodies that challenge the cultural stereotype of female physique popularized by media and advertisement in West Africa and elsewhere. He has been working on the series Phenomenal Woman and Languishing for the better part of the last decade. During the last twelve months of 2020 and 2021 when any physical contact was deemed dangerous and possibly fatal, Wahaab threw himself into drawings that portrayed the overwhelming and unbound physical presence of the human body. In these drawings, voluptuous bodies, tightly cropped on into the frame, embrace and intertwine; it is not clear where one body begins and another ends. Wahaab comments on how he hopes that these works will invite the viewer “to feel alive after months-long global compulsory isolation.” He speaks of his depiction of the untamed human body, Wahaab references “confrontation”, breaking the boundaries, challenging the norm of what is acceptable.
This is the first presentation of Wahaab’s Talisman series, his exploration of the use of text, images, Quranic verses as talismans and protective charms. This series of works on paper depicts male figures being adorned with talismanic armlets and tattoos, with images and texts over the male body. Wahaab is drawn to the controversy surrounding tattooing talismans, as these images challenge the notion of the sacredness of the body and are frequently condemned; the tattoing is often done in secret.The artist uses his own body and self-portraiture as a foundation for the series as he himself has been blackmailed due to his use of talismans and his support of talismanic trade. It is an investigation of a tradition that blends sacred and decorative, Islam and African traditional practices, superstition and male power.
Uthman Wahaab (Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, 1983) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works between Lagos and London. He received a degree in Fine Art from the School of Art, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. Wahaab is a known for his intricate, expansive and imaginative figure drawings. He draws on paper as well as on canvas. Drawing is a driving force behind Wahaab’s practice, although he also works in painting, graphics design, film, photography and installation. His work ranges from whimsical and playful observations, to re-imagined histories of the African continent, and critical commentary on the current social dilemmas in West Africa. Wahaab is keenly critical of the impact of technology on shifting cultural structures in his country, and the complexities of navigating traditional values and economic progress. Often Wahaab’s uses a critical lens to comment on social phenomenon not only within Africa; but also, globally, using bodies as a poetic metaphor. Each of his series, Victorian Lagos, Phenomenal Women, Hybrid Theory is a personal investigation and a sociological study, always anchored in the representation of the figure, and thus also in the history of figuration. Wahaab’s work has been shown internationally, with significant exhibitions in Lagos, London and New York. He has participated in the Lagos Biennale with a large commissioned wall painting.