Events at Nike Arts Centre

Nike & Tola Between Husband and Wife 2005 33x23 Mixed media on canvas

Stories by ADA DIKE

Stitches of Partnership joint exhibition by Nike Davies-Okundaye, Tola Wewe

From 12.30pm on Saturday December 14, arts lovers will gather to celebrate the long standing partnership between two of Nigeria's most renowned artists; Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye and Chief Tola Wewe. The exhibition will run for 10 days alongside workshops for both adults and children promoting Nigeria's art and culture; painting, dance, drumming, study of  Adire Eleko and more. The dynamism of Nike's compositions, coupled with the complexity and firm structure, emerge in her textile designs particularly for the adire and batiks. Nike transfers her textile skill set to her paintings and brings a vivid imagination as well as a wealth of history and tradition. Traditional adire designs are a myriad, full of meaning and history, which are combined into larger overall patterns with names that are universally recognised in the Yoruba culture. She seeks to re-establish the value of adire as art, and to increase the appreciation of this meticulously designed, hand produced textile by promoting the patterns in her solo and joint work with Chief Wewe. This combined effort with Wewe, whose works are widely acclaimed for their originality, simplicity, surface texture and mastery of colours, is a beautiful partnership of traditional meets contemporary.  Tola is considered one of the most talented minds from the African continent. His work is a hybrid of African and western sensibilities and images, reflecting his own training and experience as an international artist. Beyond Nigeria, Wewe's works have been exhibited across Europe and the US. Together, they work hand in hand, emerging their creativity and ideas on to one canvas.

Adults: Dance and drumming workshop holds 18 Dec 2013

African dance provide a full body workout whilst giving you the freedom to express yourself to the powerful beat of African drums. It is an exhilarating and unique cultural experience that makes you feel energised and alive whilst helping to release stress and strengthen body and mind.  Nike Arts Centre invites all and sundry on Wednesday, December 18, to watch and participate in a dance and drumming workshop for adults free of charge between 11am - 1pm.

Adult painting workshop holds on Dec 19

For those who want to learn how to draw or paint, they can visit Nike Arts Centre on Thursday, December 19, from 10.30am - 12.30pm (free of charge) at their introduction to painting class for two hours.
According to the organisers, learning to draw and paint is all about enjoying yourself and expressing your own individual creativity. “Painting is also a wonderful and therapeutic way to relax and de-stress from the pressures and fast pace lifestyle of living in Lagos,” they said. Taught by professional artist, they assured participants to go home with a stretched ready to hang canvas, all materials are provided for participants; “all you have to bring is your enthusiasm!”

Study of Adire Eleko holds on December 20 2013

Nike Arts Centre invites everyone in watching the fascinating process of Adire Eleko (with cassava paste and chicken feather); a traditional resist dye technique which is fast dying out. This will take place on December 20, from 11 am onwards.

According to Chief Mrs. Nike Okunday, “Adire is a Yoruba term describing resist-dyeing fabric, traditionally with indigo. This process involves keeping some areas of the cloth from absorbing dye - tying, stitching and covering areas with a dye-resistant liquid such as starch paste or wax, or clamping the cloth between carved blocks of wood - to producing a negative image which, in the case of adire, would be a white pattern on a blue background. 

“Resist dyeing is probably the oldest method of producing nonwoven patterns on fabric using dyes; it has been found in almost every culture on the planet outside Europe, where it was not adopted until the 18th century (and then only the  paste-resist and clamp methods).  Conversely, in Nigeria, tied resist was used as early as the 11th century; stitch resist may be nearly as old.  But adire eleko, or paste resist, was not used in Africa until the early 1900s.”

Free workshops hold between December 15 and 22 2013

There will be free workshops for adults and children at the Nike Art Gallery. Suffice it to say that introducing your children to art at a young age will make them have a lifelong appreciation for art as they grow older.  For this reason, it is important to give them the opportunity to explore all areas of art.  

On Sunday, December 15, between 2pm - 3pm, children are invited to participate in a tie-dye workshop free of charge.  “All you need to bring is a cotton T-shirt (not dark in colour).”

Nigerian food tasting, performance by Nefertiti Choir

On Sunday, December 22, Nike Art is offering food tasting of foods from all around Nigeria which will feature over 15 special dishes and a beautiful musical performance by Nefertiti choir.  Everyone is invited to enjoy the taste and sound of Nigeria on this very special day.  “You can expect to enjoy a feast of traditional Nigerian favourites (as below) and some exotic dishes like monitor lizard, grass cutter and snake. Others include: Jollof rice,  white rice/coconut rice, curry beef, dodo gizzard, moin moin, assorted pepper soup, egusi soup, assorted meat stew, banga soup, puff puff, peri peri chicken, nkwobi, asun, efo riro, okro soup and so on.