Press preview: Wednesday 26th January, 11 am - 1 pm.
Jack Bell Gallery is pleased to present a body of paintings by Ajarb Bernard Ategwa. In this new series, the artist introduces patterns from Cameroonian ‘Caba’ textiles. He works with portrait formats and draws on subjects from a neighbourhood photo studio. This will be his eighth solo exhibition at the gallery.
Ategwa offers a local perspective on modes of self representation in Central Africa today. Both style and composition in these images recall African black and white studio photography from the post independence era. The use of framing and strong defined identities reference more contemporary influences from social media platforms. In stark contrast to the artist’s hard line execution, these paintings have expressive and painterly backgrounds and use water colour to hold back the portrait’s full disclosure.
