Usen Obot (Associate Artist and 2021 Artist in Residency with the Residencies for Artists and Writers (RAW) programme, Arts of Africa and Global Souths Research programme, Fine Art Department, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa) holds a BA Art and Design, Fine and Applied Arts. His work seeks to interrogate and bring to the fore the consciousness that we have or have not harnessed to influence our society. The works have evolved from two-dimensional presentations in pen, ink, watercolour, oils and acrylic presentations of sites, events, objects, emotions, and thoughts to experimentations into common materials. In turn, his colours, material and theme in his recent works have equally changed to reflect and encompass our society's present state, his experiences, and the thinking that he wishes to provoke. His recent works focus on the exploration into the use and combination of common materials such as Wood, biodegradable material, fabric,, metal, Stainless steel, glass fibre, etc. These stretches across painting, sculpture, installation, and site-specific works. His choice of work materials communicates his concern around transmutation, immigration, assimilation and the complexities that underpin African society.
He has exhibited extensively in galleries, Museums and Art fairs including the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Red Location Museum, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Gallery Guichard (USA), GFI Art Gallery, Carol Craven Art Gallery (USA), Rust-en-Verd Art Gallery, Galerie NOKO, FNB Johannesburg Art Fair and Turbine Art Fair amongst others. His works have been featured in Omenka Magazine, Art Africa Magazine, etc. Obot has developed and spearheaded works and projects for social cohesion, socio-political and community engagements. His oeuvre also includes clothing design, re-engineering furniture and design. He has works in the collections of the Nelson Mandela University, the Red Location Museum, ABSA Bank, and NANDOS amongst others. Usen Obot was named the Herald Citizen Of The Year 2021 in Arts and Culture.
Last Modified: Tue, 05 Oct 2021 09:57:10 SAST