Eclecadweb_1, Author at eclectica contemporary

Abu Dhabi Art Fair 2025

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T09:51:34+02:00

The Abu Dhabi Art Fair brings African traditions into dialogue with a contemporary sphere of art-making. Hybridized, identity-focused works by Sahlah Davids, Ibrahim Khatab and Louis Barthélemy create conversation and sit in adjancency toward notions of heritage, identity and cultural resonance. Together, this is a multiplicative exploration of the self, innovative methods of cultural preservation, and it's representations across mediums in a space that beckons each unique artist to speak to one another.

Abu Dhabi Art Fair 2025Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T09:51:34+02:00

The Passage Between Two Worlds | Richard Nattoo

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:21:34+02:00

Richard Nattoo's solo exhibition, The Passage Between Worlds, sees Jamaican folklore and cosmology transmute into a reclamation of broader cultural and spiritual practices that have been misrepresented by a Western lens. Here, Nattoo's construction of mythologies oscillates between the seen and unseen, where liminal states infuse each work with otherworldly charge, suspended between revelation and ritual. Initially an exploration of Jamaica's masquerade tradition known as Jonkonnu, a vibrant, hybrid festival that emerged during slavery, this construction of Jamaican mythos becomes a way to reclaim and rewrite spiritual authorship, and shift the gaze of 19th-century colonial observation to one that champions agency over spiritual figures and icons within the culture. Ultimately, this exhibition sees Nattoo transforming folklore into philosophy, and depicting cultural symbiosis in real time.

The Passage Between Two Worlds | Richard NattooEclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:21:34+02:00

1-54 London 2025

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:29:36+02:00

Eclectica Contemporary's inclusion of artists Justin Dingwall and Thando Phenyane at 1-54 London 2025 is presented as 'Threading the Divide' in the South Wing of the Fair. Justin Dingwall's work is noted for his explorations of taboos, stigmas, and how beauty ideals are conditioned by cultural attitudes and politics, particularly in African contexts. Phenyane's process draws heavily on art history and pop culture, employing a unique painterly language that presents Black figures as dark, whimsical characters, at once comical and menacing.

1-54 London 2025Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:29:36+02:00

The Shape of Silence | Olamide Ogunade

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:33:29+02:00

Drenched in surrealist, whimsical symbolism, Nigerian artist Olamide Ogunade's solo exhibition with Eclectica Contemporary offers a vivid meditation on the poetics of stillness, situating the Black figure within richly textured domestic and natural environments. Ogunade's portraits invite a double reading; they are documents of dignity situated in place and history, and portals into dreamy, interior worlds that feel intimate and fleeting.

The Shape of Silence | Olamide OgunadeEclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:33:29+02:00

FNB Art Joburg 2025 | MAX: Ibrahim Khatab | Artist Spotlight

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:36:06+02:00

Eclectica Contemporary is proud to spotlight Ibrahim Khatab at FNB Art Joburg 2025 within the MAX section. Featured artists included Johannes Phokela, Abdoulaye Konaté, Ibrahim Khatab, Justin Dingwall, Kamal El-Feky, Nedia Were, Thando Phenyane, Ebenezer Samuel Akinola, Rory Emmett, Patrick Rulore, Sahlah Davids and Yasmine Yacoubi at FNB Art Joburg 2025. Referred to as gallery HUB, the fair’s central section presents the best in contemporary Africa art from across the continent and the world to reflect the fair’s objective to be a quality rather than quantity focused fair.

FNB Art Joburg 2025 | MAX: Ibrahim Khatab | Artist SpotlightEclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:36:06+02:00

FNB Art Joburg 2025 | HUB: Ebenezer Samuel Akinola | Artist Spotlight

Eclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:44:25+02:00

Eclectica is thrilled to spotlight Ebenezer Samuel Akinola, as a part of FNB Art Joburg 2025 in the HUB section. This exhibition featured Johannes Phokela, Abdoulaye Konaté, Ibrahim Khatab, Justin Dingwall, Kamal El-Feky, Nedia Were, Thando Phenyane, Ebenezer Samuel Akinola, Rory Emmett, Patrick Rulore, Sahlah Davids and Yasmine Yacoubi.

FNB Art Joburg 2025 | HUB: Ebenezer Samuel Akinola | Artist SpotlightEclecadweb_12026-05-18T10:44:25+02:00

Je’ni isi isi (Jenisisi): To the Beginning | Ebuka Pascal Agudiegwu

Eclecadweb_12026-05-13T15:01:03+02:00

Je’ni isi isi, translated from Igbo as “go to the beginning”, is both an invocation and an artistic excavation. This solo exhibition by Ebuka Pascal Agudiegwu is a deliberate act of re-entering the mythic, imaginative space from which the artist's visual language first emerged. Artworks that act as dreamscapes manifest as alternate representations of Western archetypes, and shift the paradigm of narrative devices, suspended between worlds, referencial works such as 'A Match Made in Heaven' invoke visual drama's within the European canon, and imbued by the artist's reframing, and realignment with the 20th-century modernist preoccupation with “the return”, Picasso’s engagement with so-called “primitive” forms, or Chagall’s dreamscapes that collapse memory and myth. Illustrative and majestic, these paintings operate as sites of remembrance and reinvention.

Je’ni isi isi (Jenisisi): To the Beginning | Ebuka Pascal AgudiegwuEclecadweb_12026-05-13T15:01:03+02:00

Pinned to Memory | Sahlah Davids

Eclecadweb_12026-05-13T15:50:17+02:00

Sahlah Davids' solo exhibition 'Pinned to Memory' is a showcase of how space shaped identity. The pin, the bead, the ruching of fabric, materials that pierce yet bind, hold together what memory might otherwise unravel. Sahlah Davids’ practice emerges from a deep engagement with the acts of unpicking and recollecting, weaving together fragments of history and material culture through layered textiles, clusters of dressmaking pins, and luminous beads. Her work transforms these humble elements into vessels of memory, quiet but powerful objects that speak of generational stories passed down through the hands of both men and women.

Pinned to Memory | Sahlah DavidsEclecadweb_12026-05-13T15:50:17+02:00

I Thought I Recognised You | Rory Emmett

Eclecadweb_12026-05-13T16:31:37+02:00

The paintings of Rory Emmett evokes a world untethered from imposed boundaries. Joy, pride, and shared humanity flicker through the obscured figures, resonating as universal emotions. Recognition here is unstable: a projection, a memory, an echo of something we might know but cannot name. 'I Thought I Recognised You' is both question and confession. It asks us to confront our biases, to sit with the discomfort of unknowing, and to consider how visibility and its absence shapes who we are allowed to see.

I Thought I Recognised You | Rory EmmettEclecadweb_12026-05-13T16:31:37+02:00

Lowe | Thebe Phetogo

Eclecadweb_12026-05-14T13:25:14+02:00

Thebe Phetogo's paintings call into question the construction of identity pertaining to Black bodies. Drawing from references to anatomy, and cinematic green screens, Phetogo's deliberate use of colours serve as a metaphor for a painting’s potential to be a screen onto which new images, ideas, and identities can be projected. Ultimately, his work explores the construction of personal identity and narratives, questioning how our understanding of politics and history are formed. Hauntologically situated in expression and metaphor, Phetogo's art becomes a visceral and meaningful extension of self to the world.

Lowe | Thebe PhetogoEclecadweb_12026-05-14T13:25:14+02:00

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