Ade Adekola is a Nigerian-born contemporary artist. His images pose questions about shifting culture, migration, and globalization. His early years were spent tinkering with cameras and electronics. He obtained a degree in architecture, in the early 90’s specializing in the design of responsive building systems. International acclaim for his responsive designs in the 90’s led to exhibitions of his artistic productions. Ade went on to study management leading to a career as a management consultant with a specialization in transformation and innovation.
He spent several years in Silicon Valley where he witnessed the digital transformation of photography. At this juncture Ade started to explore the transformative power offered by innovations in photography. His enthusiasm was captured, and his experimental practice was born. Many of his works of this period were prescient of post internet photography and glitch art movements. Moving back to Nigeria in 2005 his creative emphasis shifted; he started to create images that reframe and redefine the Nigerian Cultural narrative.
His art is driven by his interest in cultural preservation, cultural transformation, perception, color, movement, and innovation for Africa. He makes art that is relevant or derivative of the issues facing its society. Ade views art as a system of changing the perception and minds of his viewers. In a society, yawning for change (shifts in perceptions, perspectives and paradigms) his images are timely in elevating African Contemporary photography.
His works are optical inventions that explore new processes of image making. He uses digital tools as his locus of creation where the computer becomes his studio. Typically, he emphasizes vibrant and electrifying colours. Color takes on a materialness and helps to render context in his multichannel and layered images. It provides the references needed to ground the viewer’s perception. Ade uses color as a visual reference that allows the viewer to enter the realm of the unfamiliar through harmony, congruency and balance.
Ade is best described as an experimental photographer. Experimental photography offers alternate forms of representations that break with classical interpretations. It shifts photography towards a more pliable medium (like say, music or literature).
In the last few years, he has redirected his practice to creating contemporary representations from traditional and urban Nigerian culture. He creates, for example, new expressions of traditional textiles, glittering gemstone photo mosaics from ethnographic images, large scale photomontages of urban dwellers, iconic blur images of festivals and optical kinetic pieces from urban photograms.
He works in series, where each has its own visual language. He works with technology that provides the means to alter and enhance existing colour ranges (through the modulation of contrast, iridescence, gradients, and shadow). This allows him to produce alternative visual possibilities with atmospheric qualities. Ade’s “Transformations” are magnificent objects for sustained contemplation. When hung in groupings, they produce an array of unusual and striking combinations. They are as commanding as visual expressions as they are statements which allow the connoisseurship of contemporary photography to thrive.
His oeuvre questions how we perceive and define the medium of photography.
Ade lives in Lagos. He trained as an Architect at the Architectural Association London. He has exhibited as a conceptual artist since 1992 and has actively documented culture in the mega city of Lagos since 2005.
1994: “2010 Textiles and New Technology” – London
1994: “An Evolutionary Architecture” – Architectural Association
1997: “Pledge Allegiance to a flag” – London Print Trust
2009: “Repetition and Inflection II”
2009: “Fly by Lagos “- Leidenschaft
2012: “Icons of a metropolis” – Leidenschaft
2012: “Ethnoscapes; Icons as Transplants” – Leidenschaft
1992: New Scientist “Touchy – Feely Structure”
1995: Textile Forum “Third Generation Membrane Structures”
1997: Time Out” Ade Adekola / Yinka Shonebare / Mark Walliger “
1997: The Times “Around the galleries”
1997: Creative Review “January”
1997: Blueprint Magazine “Flag Day”
1997: Art Monthly”Ade Adekola / Yinka Shonebare / Mark Walliger “
1997: Art Monthly”Flagging issues “
2012: Compass Newspaper “Here comes Adekola’s Lagos’ Icons”
2012: Architectural Design “African Water Cities”
2013: Courrier International “Une Place au Soleil”
2013: GulfNews “Art Dubai, A diverse Affair”
2013: Arise “The Curator Interview: Bisi Silva”
2013: Nigerian Tribune “Lagos for Art Dubai 2013”
2013: Art Radar Asia “Art Dubai 2013 explores West African “Cities in Transition”
2013: Canvas “Art Dubai Edition”
2013: Ventures “Africa’s Art Market On The Rise”
2013: Vision “A special report: Africa Rising”
2013: The Guardian “Dubai in love with West African art”
2013: The Guardian “Tenth auction: Enwonwu, Anatsui go head-to-head”
2013: New York Times “Go-Slow: Diaries of personal and collective stagnation in Lagos”
2014: 16th Triennial Symposium on African Art: “Perceiving the Foreign: Images of African Diasporic Identities by Thandile Zwelibanzi and Ade Adekola” by Jessica Williams
2014: Business Day “A look at Adekola’s Pret a Installer”
2014: The Guardian: “Pret a Installer… Adekola strengthens repetitive technique, exclusivity”
2014: Genevieve Mag: “Ruinart Presents Ade Adekola’s “Pret-A-Installer”
2014: The Guardian: “Nigerian artists, new galleries head for global art market”
2014: The Guardian; Life Magazine: “Pret a Installer, on the Island”
2014: New York Times: “African Festival of Ideas and Photos in Africa”
2014: Quo: “14 Photos against Afro-Pessimism”
2014: Photo No 512: “????”
2014: This Day: “Light, Camera… Photos”
2014: The Guardian; “Lagos Photo festival 2014 – in Pictures”
2014: Punch; “Ado Bayero ‘returns’ at Lagos Photo Festival
2014: The Nation: “A festival of talents, photos”
2014: Vanguard; “Contemporary artists move beyond photojournalistic gaze”
2014: ZAM; “Photography, belief and truth merge at Lagos Photo.”
2014: Daily Mail UK; “Lagos photo festival: Turning negatives into positives”
2014: Kuwait Times: Turning negatives into positives
2015: Courrier International “Le Nigeria raconte par ses ecrivains”
2015: 360 International
2015: Snapped; The digital Issue. “Ethnoscapes; Icons as transplants”
2015: Foundation for Contemporary and Modern Visual Arts (FCMVA) “Nigerian art market report”
2015: Art Dubai 2013: Review
2016: Ciel Variable: Lagos, Nigeria: Capital of Photography
2017: Fifth Chukker: “A blockbuster show revs up the Lagos art scene”
2017: Vanguard: Nigerian arts make historical appearance in Venice ON APRIL 3, 2017
2017: Premium Times – 56 editions after, Nigeria debuts at Venice Biennale
2017: CNN: Nigerian Artist at the Venice Biennale
2018: Aint–Bad Magazine: Issue No.13
2018: Loeil de Photographie – Ghosts of Bar Beach
2018: Punch – GalleryB57 Debuts with Ghosts of Bar Beach
2019: Culture File on African Art Week: Interview with Ade Adekola
2012: This is Africa: “Exploring globalisation and African identity”
2012: Think Africa Press: “An Interview with Ade Adekola”
http://thinkafricapress.com/nigeria/icons-metropolis-interview-ade-adekola
2014: The Independent “This is my Africa: How continent’s young photographers have reclaimed lens from the west” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/this-is-my-africa-how-continents-young-photographers-have-reclaimed-lens-from-the-west-9355478.html
2014: Lagos Photo 2014 – Staging Reality, Documenting Fiction
http://www.photography-now.com/exhibition/102868
2016: Hunger TV. “Five Nigerian Photographers you have to know”
2016: CNN: “Artist bend the rules of contemporary African Art”
http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/art-x-lagos-international-art-fair/index.html
2016: CNN: “2016’s Most visually inspiring moments”
http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/style-2016-highlights/index.html
2017: Omenka: “Stripes, Weaves and Colours”
https://www.omenkaonline.com/strips-weaves-and-colours/
2017: Omenka: “Leading Photographers based in Nigeria”
https://www.omenkaonline.com/leading-photographers-based-nigeria/
2018: Mache Digital – Ghost of Bar Beach
https://www.mache.digital/series/2018/8/21/bar-beach
2019: Culture File on African Art Week: Interview with Ade Adekola
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/lyric/21536446
1990: Sheppard Robson Architects
1992: Warren Electric Ltd
1994: Du Pont de Nemours International
1995: Flachglas AG
Collections
Private collections: Abuja, Basel, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Lagos, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Pol, San Francisco, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Zurich.
Corporate Collections: Access Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria, Guarantee Trust Bank, ExxonMobil, Old Mutual, NNPC, Sahara Group, Standard Chartered Bank.