Marking the pinnacle of Nya’s investigation of abstraction, this remarkable triptych entitled “Destiny of Words” whispers the eternal power of what the artist describes as the ultimate decider of Life and death, “words”.

The celestial palette of royal gold, majestic purple and snow-white discloses how God’s Word dispenses immeasurable Grace that enables any human to sail past the sudden storms and the weltering waves of life with confidence and incommunicable joy foreign to reason and befuddling to human intellect.

The earthly hues of dirt brown, umber and charcoal, and the unorthodox materials that range from sackcloth, burnt scrolls, corroding metal and stones allude to The Word’s illimitable power to infiltrate the world system and resurrect any Man who chooses to believe Him from the tomb of grief, sorrow and poverty to his pre-Adamic position of dominion, authority and honor.

Divided into 3 equal parts and composed of multiple layers of thick pigments that were deliberately exposed to natural fire for elongated periods; the triptych is analogous to the dead sea scrolls that were traditionally divided into 3 groups, namely the Biblical, Apocryphal and Sectarian manuscripts.

In a 2008 essay, the year the triptych was first exhibited, the artist wrote, and I quote “words are the canvas of my thoughts, and my thoughts stir my emotions, and my emotions brush my decisions, and my decisions color my actions, and my actions paint my habits, and my habits frame my character, and my character protects, promotes and preserves my gift and escorts me to my glorious destiny...”

The repetitious use of “my” is a testament to how Nya’ sees the deployment of words as every human being’s sovereign responsibility, a message that is emphasized by a key verse ascribed to the work, which reads,

“death and life is in the power of the tongue…”