FROM the first week of June, 2013, Raoul Olawale da Silva, a Nigerian artist who has spent years working in Switzerland, will present an exciting collection of works in an exhibition titled Inner Worlds. Outer Space! to be hosted by the Wheatbaker.
The exhibition is sponsored by Deutsche Bank, First Hydrocarbon Nigeria Ltd.(FHN), Global Energy Company Ltd. (GEC) and the Wheatbaker, all corporate entities which have a strong art focus as part of their corporate social responsibility, and which are keenly watching emerging artists in Africa. Deutsche Bank has the largest art collection of any bank globally, and is the official sponsor of major art events including Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair in New York and London, and the on-line magazine ArtMag.
The Wheatbaker, a luxury boutique hotel, has since opening its doors in 2011, successfully focused on becoming Nigeria’s first “art destination” hotel. Oil industry players, GEC & FHN, have sponsored art and culture events for close to 20 years, including supporting leading art publications (101 Nigerian Artists and Lagos A City at Work (GEC) and Five (FHN), and key visual and performing art events, including the recently concluded African Now Bonhams Auction in London (FHN) and the hit musical Kakadu (GEC).
“I am delighted that corporate Nigeria is increasingly focusing on the creative industry as a way of giving back to the community and creating wealth,” commented exhibition curator and filmmaker, Sandra Mbanefo Obiago, who is passionate about bringing art into public spaces. “Raoul’s work is bold. His large oil paintings on canvas draw us into an intense battle of color and shape, spaces of tight and profuse strokes and patterns, interspersed with calm, languid spaces of yellow and shades of blue, white and red. His abstract artistry has bold global appeal”.
The exhibition touches on the different experiences Raoul has had in his fatherland, Nigeria, his motherland, Switzerland, combined with a Brazilian ancestry. He is an artist who has used these multi-ethno-cultural experiences to create vivid images that touch on inner reflection and outer color.
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