In his new exhibition that officially opened at Seed Gallery on November 4 entitled “He hides His perfect gifts in flawed vessels so that evil Man won’t see,” Nya′ continues to unearth powerful images from the words, faith, vision, and purpose.

 

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The paintings visually express the preeminence of “work” and “words” in fulfilling vision.

 

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The prolific African contemporary artist describes Man as an administrator of God’s divine mandate of dominion and “work” as the tool he was given to accomplish his purpose. In the opening summation of the exhibition’s catalogue, Nya′ writes,

 

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 “Finding your gift is the first step in discovering your divine assignment and leadership mandate.”

 

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Refuting the average notion that equates ‘work with a job,’ Nya’ describes “work” not as a place you go to, or an address where you spend your day and get a paycheck for your toil, but rather, as “something you manifest.” After carefully tracing the roots of the word (work) in several languages (including Hebrew and Greek), the savant African contemporary artist indents keywords on his canvases that describe “work” in phrases like “to become; to manifest; to fulfill; to serve; to reveal. In essence, “to work,” according to the artist’s revelatory findings is “to become yourself and to discover what you were created to be and to diligently serve humanity through self-manifestation.”

 

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Nature and remnants of found objects are employed on the surfaces of his compositions to allude to both the power of "work" as well as the Grace of the granter of the gift of work, particularly His ability to resurrect broken dreams, stolen hopes and buried visions. In “Genesis of Eternity,” an abstracted blueprint of the critically endangered Madagascar fish eagle represents the itinerary of a flying bird. Concrete nails, twigs from a baobab tree and a white rag soiled with scarlet pigment were employed in “My Boathouse” to construct the lighthouse tower providing hope to the vessel lost at sea; and river sand mixed with remnants of locks and suitcase handles that look like they were salvaged from a shipwreck create the texture in “Redeemer of Dreams.”

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Seed Gallery Press