January 20–February 18, 2023
KÖNIG GALERIE is pleased to present the first solo show in Berlin by Dennis Osadebe, DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PRAY?
The exhibition is comprised of six new paintings, two stained glass works, and one sculpture, which the Lagos-based artist created expressly for this occasion. Osadebe has developed a unique pictorial language populated with figures that don masks, which routinely stare out at the viewer. The concept behind this new body of works is a question that has occupied Osadebe for years following his year of service in Nigeria, which has prompted an inquiry into belief systems, religion, and the nature of prayer.
First Communion, 2023, gold leaf, metal, 3D print, lacquer, concrete plinth | 137.5 x 47 x 47 cm (Image by Roman März)
This investigation runs through the varied media in which the artist has worked in preparation for this exhibition and help to ground the modes of representation like stained glass, a medium that often adorns places of worship.
The identity of a painting, and the imagined identity of the figures captured in it, find communion in DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PRAY?, impacting one another on a level playing field, as each work in this show offers a mode of reflection and meditation that is unique to an individual viewer. Prayer, like so many other forms of ritualized introspection, relies on the potential of triggers to elicit contemplation, and Osadebe has created a body of works that ground this potential in the unique forms of the painted picture, where terrestrially bound angels give just enough of their mystery to keep viewers occupied with what is right there in front of them, and what perhaps lies beyond.
Source: KÖNIG GALERIE
