GodPromise
WORDS AND DEFINITIONS
Touted as the Dolce and Gabana of contemporary renaissance Nigerian art with a strong representation for the ingenious underrated resilient Niger Delta art axis, GodPromise is a force of creativity comprising the extremely conceptually artistic duo of Godwin Arikpo and Promise O’nali respectively from the Port Harcourt and Nsukka art schools. In recent times, these young Niger delta creative residents have hold sway their artistic prowess which in turn, has garnered a lot of religious followership for their works. This is just the beginning of a movement that would herald the new breed of contemporary artists who will stop at nothing to express themselves creatively. A fine blend of two extremely different characters in a brewing cauldron of intense creativity.
Godwin Arikpo’s creative prowess has paid off in the other artistic skills he possess. His branding experience owes a lot to his painting style of abstract expressionism which turns him to some sort of modern day Jackson Pollock fused with an umber intensive realistic painting skill. His mixed media technique can never be over emphasised and has also sets his works out from his contemporaries. These he combines with the use of beads to create an uncanny visually arresting pieces of art that pulls the observer towards the deep thought pattern employed to create these works of untimely relevance. He ground his teeth deep in book illustrations, graphic designing, interior decoration and designing, branding and photo realistic portrait painting.
Promise O’nali would rather be described as the Andre 300 of contemporary Nigerian art and be rest assured, he has so much to offer. One of the strongest creative forces to have ever emerged from the Niger Delta art axis, his oeuvres comprises so much that he thinks he cannot get them all out in one lifetime. With a creative forte that cuts across fictitious and non fictitious creative writing, poetry, hip hop music, fashion, spoken words, art critic, installation, mixed media, graffiti art and the list is just endless when it comes to describing this individual’s creative prowess. Though he has decided to sit on his art for now, he is one individual whose creativity supersedes him.
These two relentless artists have commingled under the codename ‘GODPROMISE’ which was coined from the combination of their first names; GODwin and PROMISE. However, the promise in this context refers to that ultimate power of God which we all posses in immeasurable abundance; creativity. A politics to man’s enigmatic and diverse phenomena, simply put, GODPROMISE is nothing short of a visual Pandora’s Box waiting to unleash its creative impetus on the contemporary art scene. Their works are driven by an emotional urge to create art that interrogates the existence of man and its effect on the most infinitesimal everyday occurrences that tend to form our physical lives.
Promise’ abstracts have been nicknamed ‘embryo’ because they privilege verisimilitude to the dynamic emotional response that emanates from watching an embryo through a CT scan. They reactivate that feeling of continuity of life in us which his paintings argue for in a rather, different apt but dreamier manner. His use of colours and technique has been described by a collector to be intensely emotional and riddled with passion. Accordingly, and while one hesitates to proffer metaphorical readings onto Promise’ art, there is something apt about his deployment of circular swirls in many of his paintings. These he has likened to the energy, continuity and dynamism of life which is undoubtedly invisible to the human optical perception.
According to Benny Droscher, “we all stand in front of an artwork with a certain amount of information, ideas, even prejudices, if you’re going to communicate directly with what’s in front of you, these must be thrown away. Your normal way of understanding must be short-circuited, so you can speak in a nonverbal language.” Following this stance, the duo has employed a constantly coherent body of works to coax a new way of thinking and understanding from their audience, in a bid to suspend logic but push further, the fragile boundaries of artistic coherence. In other words, the works of these young duo confronts the viewer with something that can’t be contained by mere words or definitions. The result is a glimpse into the unscripted visual promiscuity of the duo, the genesis of a looping process aimed at opening doors of perception and then, making visible, our own propensity for understanding the ethereal via our innermost essence.
This etherealness and subtle spirituality is evident in the paintings of Godwin which ultimately give his works that uncanny feeling of looking through a dreamy film of reality. His constant use of folded fabrics, beads and the highly mastered technique of pouring his colours to explode in a visual conversation of divergent hues, divulging his ambivalence towards realism and his inherent post modern creative ideas. Godwin lends his visual statements to a bouillabaisse of techniques, from colourful realistic dancing figures to a rather modern and subtle Jackson-Pollockish colour play and highly textured backgrounds over an instinctive, confident sense of composition. One is tempted to see his work as a cornucopia of styles and techniques rendered with the strong ease and dexterity that comes with the constant burning of studio time. As if these styles and technique were combinatory ingredients employed to give that magical effect on his canvases.
What GODPROMISE wants, in fact, to achieve is to create an engagement with reality through art, unencumbered by labels or categorisation. Pushing further, boundaries that can only pave way for a new beginning in contemporary African art. Bringing to the fore, that renaissance attitude that puts the modern artist on his toes, not wanting to be left behind. The last decade has witnessed a rather tectonic pattern in the global economy, forcing several African states to record tangible economic growth, Nigeria inclusive. Ultimately, the visual art sector is earnestly on the trail of this trend and GODPROMISE is leading the Niger Delta race with a relentless zeal.
