By Abdi Ali
Published May 30, 2017
A Nigerian art initiative invites painters to apply for its inaugural international artist residency programme.
The Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), operating out of the Ogun State capital, Abeokuta, in south-western Nigeria, says the call for application is open and closes 60 days ahead of the September 1 – November 30, 2017 session.
OYASAF says it is providing Nigerian and international artists with the “opportunity to live and work in an up class and serene environment, to develop their specific individual projects while experiencing and engaging with Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage” during its five-week annual OYASAF International Artist Residency.
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The artist who are selected for what is described as ‘an educational, immersive, creative and inclusive experience’, OYASAF says on its website, “will be residents in the artists’ studio at Abeokuta and will be provided a working space to experiment and research their art production projects and would be provided with logistical support for their artistic creations.”
“The residency will culminate in a one day solo exhibition of the produced works during the residency, at the OYASAF facility in Lagos or any other location as may be decided by OYASAF from time to time. Resident artists will have the opportunity at such exhibitions, to meet Nigerian and non-Nigerian collectors, curators, gallery owners, scholars and journalists.”
At the end of each residency programme, artists, who OYASAF says shall be provided with living stipends and production allowances, will be expected to donate one artwork per artist to OYASAF.
OYASAF says “all applications must be submitted in English” via oyasaf2000@yahoo.com.
Detailed application information is available on the oyasaf.com website.
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Meanwhile, Nairobi is preparing for the annual Korean Film Festival scheduled for June 6-9, 2017 at Alliance Française.
The organisers of the event, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kenya, says “Korean Cinema has seen a spectacular boom in recent years.” This is illustrated by the fact that TRAIN TO BUSAN, the live-action film by independent animator Yeon Sang-ho about a zombie outbreak on a high-speed train that shall open the festival, not only premiered at Cannes International Film Festival in France in 2016, but also went on to register 11.6 million admissions that topped the yearly box office.
Running concurrently with the movie festival at Alliance Francaise in the Nairobi CBD shall be a ceramics art exhibition showing wheel-thrown open-work pottery that is said to be inspired by traditional Korean pottery culture and African art that shall also symbolise friendship between Kenyans and South Koreans.
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The art show, by Kim Sung-Jin–a master ceramist and visiting professor at Kenya’s Kenyatta University–titled Space of Soil, is treated as his farewell exhibition in the Kenyan capital.
The ceramics exhibition is expected to run through June 13.
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