Sejiro Avoseh: Faces of Nowhere and This Life

Sejiro Avoseh. FACES OF NOWHERE. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Courtesy of A Hug From The Art World.

By CLARE GEMIMA September 16, 2024

Nigerian-born artist Sejiro Avoseh recently relocated his family from Lagos to the United Kingdom, embarking on a journey to expand both his personal and artistic horizons. His unyielding ambition for his family and creative work drives a deeply introspective exploration of identity and displacement. Avoseh’s art captures the discomfort rooted in Nigeria's colonial past, now further complicated by his experiences in England. These reflections took shape as FACES OF NOWHERE, his most recent solo exhibition in New York. Split between A Hug From The Artworld, and Kravets Wehby galleries in Chelsea, the two-part show delved into the complexities of diaspora, family dynamics, and the tensions Avoseh navigates both near and far from his homeland. Through his distinctive oil paintings, Avoseh underscores the crucial role of representation in the arts and the challenge of crafting a personal narrative within today’s rapidly shifting global landscape.

Sejiro Avoseh. FACES OF NOWHERE. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Courtesy of A Hug From The Art World.

In Fingers in the Sand (2024), subtle forms emerge from the painting's abyssal background, most strikingly depicted through the serenely vacant gaze of a child. Adorned in a butterfly-patterned jumper and delicate pink slippers, this figure may be interpreted as a representation of the artist’s young daughter. Surrounding her, spectral figures dissolve into the background, their gazes less overt but perceptively present. Mystical hints of nostrils, ears, cheeks, and eyebrows drift around the central figure, evoking a guardian angel's ethereal presence. In works such as Still Looking Back and Taste of Soda (both 2024), Avoseh employs dynamic, rapid brushstrokes and an explosive use of color to draw upon historical references. His approach echoes the dynamic intensity of Willem de Kooning’s action paintings—especially those from 1959-1969 currently on view at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice—while also recalling the chaotic, melting library scene from The Pagemaster (1994). In this interplay, Avoseh weaves a sophisticated sense of playfulness into the tension between the ugly and the sublime, revealing not only his artistic techniques and knowledge, but also, in a profoundly heightened way, his identity as an engaged, curious, and active father.

Sejiro Avoseh. Untitled, 2024. Oil on canvas. 39 x 31 ½ in. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Courtesy of A Hug From The Art World.

When I spoke with Gabriel Kilongo, the director of Jupiter who first introduced me to Avoseh’s work, he shared valuable insights about how he recently hosted the artist at the gallery’s Miami location in order to develop his latest body of work:

“Since our first project with Sejiro last December, it's been a thrill to observe his diligence, and unadulterated dedication to his craft. He and his family truly enjoyed their time in Miami during the fair, so I offered him the opportunity to create his new body of work at the gallery this summer. It's been greatly illuminating to have the privilege to experience his painting process closely. I've learned that Sejiro's work is deeply layered and more complex that one would guess by deceptively relying on the final image. His children are mostly the subject of his paintings. In a Reynolds Woodcock style, images of his kids are embedded in the early layers of the paintings in a figurative and coherent manner. Sejiro then complicates the imagery with marks and gestures that render an ambiguously cryptic, yet vivacious image. Sejiro has unparalleled talent. He is mature, ambitious, respectful and thoughtful. It brings me a lot of joy to see him turning the gallery into his home for a big part of this summer.”

Sejiro Avoseh. Three or More, 2024. Oil on canvas. 78 x 160 in. © Sejiro Avoseh. Photo by Alexa Hoyer. Courtesy of the artist and Jupiter, Miami Beach, FL.

During the artist's time in Miami, several paintings that now feature in a group exhibition titled This Life were created, and debuted this week at Jupiter’s New York location. Alongside works by Baseera Khan, Kathia St. Hilaire, and Jeane Cohen, Avoseh’s monumental Three or More (2024) stands out as one of the most commanding paintings in the show. This piece, marked by a confident interplay of abstract shapes, blobby masses, and subtle human forms, reflects a bold evolution from his earlier works shown at A Hug From The Artworld, and Kravets Wehby Gallery. Here, Avoseh envelops viewers through a much larger-scaled canvas, and overarching bulbousness, where in which his signature faces—often faces within faces— seem to infuse his painting with a more intoxicating sense of pareidolia, where recognizable figures and other expressive motifs emerge, only to churn fleetingly, and fluidly away.

This Life is on view at Jupiter in New York from September 6 – October 26, 2024. WM