breath of light...
this week in new york
july 2007
twi-ny.com
mark rifkin
The Seed Gallery describes its current exhibition as "awakening a myriad of messages - genesis, beauty, serenity, hope, and vision." The work of five artists is on view, liberally spread apart in the small room in order to allow visitors time to breathe in the spirit of each canvas.
John Milton Ensor Parker incorporates mathematical equations into "A Life Worth Livin'." Fred Gates bathes the Brooklyn skyline in a shockingly dense red. Yuko Ueda's "Waters of March" series of five small pieces combine nature scenes with metallic elements.
Cecile Romat's pigments explode in "Breeze of Love." And, on the far wall from the entrance, Isabel Carrio's "Pilgrimage" lures passersby in with its breathtaking subtlety.
"immortal wisdom", the work of nya'
the brooklyn eagle
monday october 17 2005
maurice green
hearing nya' expounding on his work was an experience both cathartic and elevating. it is with no surprise that the world acclaimed curator raphael describes nya's work as "a voice of a forgotten spirit, an epistle to man's purpose on earth, and an epitaph to future generations". this is evident in this pulsating collection, "infinity of purpose" at s.e.e.dgallery, 111 front street, in dumbo, brooklyn, new york.
this body of work expresses the courage and intensity needed to overcome our limitations and sour to new horizons. it circles around the mystery of surrender, in a world that baptizes selfishness and greed. in "custodians of inheritance", one of the most powerful painting
in the collection, you are elevated into a world of mystery, where rich, potent and fertile roots of our inheritance were birthed. as your mind's eye journey around the canvas, feasting on the strong unorthodox elements, composed of tree bark, cow dung, natural beads and rotten wire on handmade fiber paper, there is a profound feeling of celebration, the joy of consummating with purpose "when one has found his supreme mission in life, and is set free from the prison of fear and ego".
"retired composer" speaks of the discipline, clarity and integrity that true surrender embodies. as you feast on the intense red color (almost redder than red), there is a strong commitment in the line figure leaning on what looks like a grand piano. as disheartened and dejected might be his gesture, it seems passion has engulfed his blood (the very source of life) and therefore, he/she has no choice, but to surrender to his calling.
nya's use of organic materials in some of the paintings creates compositions that are fresh, powerful and immediate, and yet possess a finesse and restraint that can only be concluded as phenomenal. this is more evident in "torrents of despair", where one can actually feel him/herself being sucked in by the storm and yet not as an invader, but a welcome guest.
the shear power and presence of this incredible collection rest on a deeper, more significant formal armature and an aura of spiritual connectedness that emanates throughout the entire gallery. in this age of irony, it is rare and an honor to be in the presence of such magnificent work. a collection of this apex and quality renders accolades of the highest form, and a must to see for all art lovers.
"protest and roots" in the art of nya'
gallery and studio
september/october 2004
ed mccormack
meeting the young african painter nya' (he only uses capital letters for the name of God and the apostrophe he affixes to his own name is accentual rather than possessive) and listening to him expound on his art reminded me of being in kingston, jamaica, in the late 1970s (around the time nya' was born), listening to the late great reggae star bob marley explain the origins of the universe to me in his spacious yard, while he reclined across the hood of his bmw smoking a spliff the size of a sno-cone.
for nya' a descendent of the great tendai chifambausiku, a brave and valiant chief explains with great pride and humility how his great grand father once ruled a kingdom in eastern zimbabwe called binga guru which is twice the size of england. nya,s work speaks of profound and mystical matters with a moral certainty and a spiritual fervor that is rarely heard among young artists in this age of irony.
so it struck me as more than a coincidence when nya' mentioned in the course of our conversation that marley's music is the only thing he listens to while he paints-especially since his mixed media paintings have a raw power akin to the thumping backbeat of reggae, a music born of fervently afrocentric ancestral memory arising rhythmically in the shanty towns of kingston. shadows of the rebel spirit that animates marley,s songs also flit through the poems that nya' writes to annotate his paintings (all lowercase in the manner of an african e.e. cummings), which thud to the drumbeat of destiny with lines such as "as i tread along the weary path to greatness/to be a covenant to my people/a light to the nations and a beacon to oppressed spirits/help me to understand my past, lest i be/bitterÉ''
indeed that nya' sees himself as a child of destiny was everywhere evident in his recent new york exhibition, "journey to my roots'', at gelarbert studios gallery, 255 west 86th street. nya's healthy self regard (think schnabel with a soft spoken intensity in place of the girth and bombast) seems more than justified by his talent, which is so formidable that one can only be taken aback upon entering a gallery filled with his mature, accomplished paintings and immediately meeting the youthful artist.
and on learning that nya' creates his paintings with natural materials such as oxblood, ashes, and cow dung, one can't help remembering the big stink about a painting of the virgin mary incorporating elephant dung. nya', however, intergrates such organic materials without the slightest whiff of sensationalism. for his compositions, while fresh, powerful, and immediate, possess a finesse and a restraint that can only be called phenomenal in a young painter as hungry as anyone else his age for recognition. which is to say , they show none of the desperation to grab attention with novelty for its own sake that marks-or-mars-the work of so many of his contemporaries. despite the oxblood, the cow dung, the ashes, the bent twigs, scattering of cement nails, shards of rusted metal, and other unusual materials that nya' employs to add tactility and heft to his compositions, the power and presence of his paintings rests on a deeper, more significant formal armature and an aura of spiritual connectedness that fairly glows through his work. the oxblood provides him with reds of visceral radiance unlike that of the most brilliant cadmiums, and the cow dung produces browns of an earthiness that cannot be matched by the raw umbers or siennas put out by any manufacturer of standard artist pigments.
these hues that nya' savages from the natural resources of zimbabwe resonate with the rich and bloody history of the country. and while nya' states emphatically that he has not studied the work of modern european artists other than the monolithic piccasso, it should be stated that his work, for all its rootsy afrocentric aunthenticity, also possesses a european-inflected aesthetic sophistication one can only attribute to the fact that zimbabwe boasts of a national gallery and other private galleries, in contrast to other parts of the continent where museums and contemporary art centers are few and far between.
that said, what is truly remarkable about nya's work is how thoroughly he assimilates such modernist elements into a post modern style that meets all the progressive main stream criteria while projecting a highly subjective sense of african identity. particularly powerful in this regard is the painting nya' calls "botso'', a shona word for the spiritual banishment that befalls one who ignores a rebuke from his mother and does not reconcile with her before her death, thereby "poisoning the roots of love". in this composition, the boldly abstracted outline of a woman-"the shadow of the mother,'' as nya' puts it-merges with a rugged landscape and an actual spear affixed to the canvas. the later object is a symbol of the manhood forfeited by the cursed individual whom nya' addresses in the poetic annotation to "botso''. "in disrespect of her power/the grandeur of her rebuke/you abuse her splendour/the seasoned speech from her lips you disregard/and beckon away from discipline/in stillness of moments, peril pursues,/prosperity eludes and multiple misfortunes/paint your every footstepÉ''
the choice of the verb ''paint'' in the last line of the poem seems telling in that it indicates the almost metaphysical power that nya' attributes to the physical act of painting- a power that comes across forcefully in the composition called "mburuchusi''. this is a term for a process by which an ever tightening strip of bark tied around a bull's testicles gradually tightens and castrate the animal, making it docile enough to pull a plough. in nya's painting, the bull becomes a metaphor for the man whose mask like faces, outlined by bent twigs, overlap rhythmically. in sharp contrast to these docile faces and the literal stick figures lined up below them, the blood reds and other fiery hues of the canvas reflect the anger of the following lines from the accompanying poem: why silence my people/a people/ enchained by sterile rulers/enslaved by virtues of greed and hate/stripped of a common visionÉ''
other poems and paintings by nya' such as " kaptives of inheritance and spiritual master-bation", are also as fierce as bob marley's potent protest songs. by contrast, compositions such as "tribal legacy", and the exhibition's title painting, "journey to my roots", express the artist's abiding love for his people and his rich culture. all however share qualities in common that make this immensely gifted african artist an exciting new discovery.