February 1–March 26, 2023 | Accra, Ghana
Bright engages his viewers with large colour scapes, triggering aesthetic exuberance and enticing one to look beyond the canvas. Driven by momentary fascinations, Bright examines personal relationships and lived experiences through his linear applications of paint and texture within his compositions.
In Honour of Nwanyi Mbaise, is the collection of works from two new series – Monuments in Honour of Nwanyi Mbaise and My Book of Colour Stories. Bright plunges his practice into discovery, as he playfully manoeuvres within the depths of chromatism presenting his abstract paintings as shrines paying homage to the artist’s relationship with his mother.
Each painting serves as an ode and testament to her upbringing that was deeply steeped in Catholicism and her nursing profession, which naturally fed into his own identity formation. In these works, Bright rethinks traditional notions of religious symbolism and the connotation of the Christian Cross.
Image of Joseph Chisom Bright | Source: ADA Accra
For me, it is all about the colours. The colour is the form, it is the emotion, it is the guideline. It is about the subjective deduction upon encountering these primary shades and tones. It is about saying that I am painting with no structure, no configuration and that should be enough. – JC Bright
The second series My Book of Colour Stories discusses the pressures placed on African artists to be vocal promoters of their culture on the world stage. Arguably, artists from the West seem to have the creative freedom to succeed without necessarily imbuing deep meaning within their work. Bright uses this series as an emotional diary of his frustration with unequal expression and purposefully rebels against the global perception of what African art can and should look like.
Installation shot of In honour of Nwanyi Mbaise exhibition | Courtesy of ADA Accra
Source: ADA Accra
