Ken Nwadiogbu‘s solo show, Yellow is the new Black, was recently at Kristin Hjellegjerde gallery.
I was struck by the melancholy in these paintings, a sense of wistfulness. We have to face a certain loss when moving on to something new in our lives, something that came across very strongly in the exhibition.
Many of his characters are in the process of moving to a different state: location or being. Some are in motion, others on the edge ot it.
They stare out, their eyes behind the surface.
The final piece is painted on unstretched Akwete cloth and clearly shows the tension between different states.
