Edinburgh Printmakers announce a new exhibition by award winning printmaker Ade Adesina running from 27 July to 10 November as part of the 2024 Edinburgh Art Festival. Fresh from being recognised by the French Académie des Beaux-arts with the Mario Avati Engraving Prize and ahead of a landmark exhibition of his work in Paris, Ade Adesina will share a new body of work in his exhibition INTERSECTION in Gallery One at Edinburgh Printmakers. Featuring works in screenprint and lithograph for the first time alongside sculptural installations, works in linocut and woodcut the Royal Academy artist is embracing colour on a large scale for the first time.
Works include a new self portrait titled Griot taken from the West African term for a storyteller and a colourful screenprint diptych using the symbol of the anchor. Using this the artist is representing a dead end. Being anchored and being held down. Adesina sees himself as storyteller with his work trying to find the answers to questions. Describing his artwork as a form of visual communication, many different symbolisms and iconography appear in his prints. From ever changing clouds reflecting uncertainty/anxiety aligns with feelings towards current issues the artist’s work is influenced by including climate change. Piggybank etchings referencing the cost of living crisis and UK road signage and compasses convey a sense of direction.
A series of sculptural installations in the exhibition will act as expanded versions of his prints creating a bridge between individual artworks. Doors are suspended from the gallery ceiling, scorched ladders and cracked earth bring the imagery in prints to life.
Described as one of the most dynamic and accomplished practitioners of original printmaking in the UK today, Adesina was born in Nigeria in 1980 and now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied printmaking at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, graduating in 2012. Recent artist residencies include Fossekleiva Kultursenter (Norway), Eton College, Highland Print Studio, Glasgow Print Studio and Grays School of Art. He is a Royal Scottish Academician and member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Arts.
Speaking ahead of the exhibition Ade Adesina said:
I want to make work that makes people think. There might be an element that catches your eye and as you look deeper you are drawn into the artwork inviting you to spend time with it. I’ve been experimenting with as many processes as possible so am excited to see how they sit alongside each other and contribute to an impactful show. Like many people I was deeply affected by the image of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi whose body was recovered from a Turkish beach in 2015. This body of work unites themes of migration with wider global political and environmental events.
Ade Adesina
INTERSECTION will run alongside an exhibition of new work in Gallery Two by artist and photographer Tayo Adekunle. The British Nigerian photographer and Edinburgh College of Art graduate uses her work to explore issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality as well as racial and colonial history. Her work is centred around the reworking of historical tropes relating to the black female body, taking from contexts that include art historical paintings and sculptures as well as 19th century colonial photography. Named by British Journal of Photography as One to watch in 2021, Tayo’s work has recently been exhibited at Southbank Centre, London Art Fair and The Royal Scottish Academy.
Stories of the Unseen, from Tayo Adekunle is a display of new and existing works in photography and printmaking. This exhibition takes a different look on the stories of black culture, re-examining and challenging narratives that have otherwise been told throughout history. Beginning with the artists’ current body of work, “Reclamation of the Exposition”, Adekunle delves into the fetishisation of black women’s bodies, through the human displays in ethnographic expositions. Following from this series, the artist’s new work shows us the importance of preserving heritage and tradition, and does so by using examples from the effects that Western colonisation had on Nigeria. This research references key points of African history such as the division of Africa in the Berlin Conference of 1884, and also the demonisation of orisha Èṣù, a divine spirit of the Yoruba religion of West Africa.
Listings Information
Ade Adesina: INTERSECTION
27 July 2024 – 10 November 2024
Gallery 1 Edinburgh Printmakers
Tayo Adekunle: Stories of the Unseen
27 July 2024 – 10 November 2024
Gallery 2 Edinburgh Printmakers
Castle Mills 1 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9FP
Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 6pm