written by Matthew Loyd
Recently I got to visit the homie Obi Agwam’s solo exhibition “Faith be my Wings” at Picture Theory in Chelsea. Inside the gallery were paintings all produced this year, and some overseas in the UK, where Obi was for a residency at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The collection of works display colorful scenes, all predicated on themes of love, loss, and emotional changes.
I’m no stranger to Agwam’s work; years ago we interviewed him for 20XX Magazine and I’ve been a fan of his work for a time even before that. This new collection features a vibrancy I haven’t seen before, adding more texture, color, and pattern work in. Agwam has always been an artist to intertwine symbolism in his work, doing this utilizing ubiquitous and deeply personal symbols or motifs. In this exhibition there are references to the Eight Fold Path, Black Panther activism, and cultural patterns hailing from English and American society.
I think my favorite piece from the show was Missing you, I’ve forgotten me. There was an essence of love, both had and lost, that I could feel emanating from the piece, before even learning of its name. As a matter of fact, I just learned the name of the piece- as no titles cards are present in the gallery. All that aside, there’s a sense of longing in the painting, courted by an ephemeral fondness that is both present and gone. I stared at it for some time, loving the way Agwam used the color and lighting to produce a sweet, warm feeling. After speaking with Obi about the piece, my interpretation was almost spot on, with the bees and honeycomb being symbolic cues to tie in the theme of sweet romance. The painting also had some really nice texture on the upper plaid section that drove home the essence of a fabric bag or garment.
It all came from you is another favorite of mine. I love the wispy nature of the colors. The piece also feels ghastly, and freely expressive. Many of the pieces in this exhibition bring that expressive nature through, in the way brushtrokes are used to display hues that move across the paintings and blend into others, creating amorphous forms on the canvasses. Emotions and memory work in the same way, and this whole set of works ties experiences we all have but can't put into words together.
The show is up until the 24th of October. Go see “Faith be my Wings” and enter a realm of imagination that feels more familiar than you would expect.
