NEW ORLEANS (press release) – Ibis Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Austin Uzor’s solo exhibition, Nothing But Dust. Uzor is from the Imo State in southern Nigeria where his interest in art started very young. In 2016 he immigrated to the United States where he completed his MFA from the University of North Texas. Currently, he lives in Alfred, NY where he is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Alfred University. A formidable talent and gaining significant acclaim, Uzor has a buoyant international exhibition record, including Nigeria, London and across the States. Just within the past year he had solo exhibitions at NYAMA Fine Art in Chelsea, NYC and Fort Works Arts in Fort Worth, as well as group exhibitions at The Koppel Project at Hive London and the Sacred House in LA.
Austin Uzor’s paintings are aesthetically rich in texture and effortlessly move from exquisitely painted renderings to ghostly expressionistic images. It is often the uncertain areas in-between these fragmented scenes that he creates psychological spaces with which the viewer must contend. Addressing these latest paintings, Uzor writes, “…this new body of work examines both personal and collective experience of being stateless and the complex ideology surrounding the ritual of passing…. With figurative imageries of fragmented sceneries in metaphorically dissolving landscapes, there tends to be dialogue between a third space that serves as an infinity window to access these events and realities.” From incubation to the installation of Nothing But Dust, Uzor developed the paintings to be experienced both individually and as a complete concept. On both sides of the long gallery space, fourteen paintings with gothic form and stained glass line the wall, as if it were a nave of a Medieval Cathedral. Punctuating are perpendicular walls in the back, with three large paintings on canvas of secular glimpses, creating an intersect between ritual and reality.
Nothing But Dust runs from April 2 through May 21, with an artist reception on April 2 from 6-8 p.m. For more information please go to www.ibisartgallery.com.
