Artist Statement
Multimedia artist Kainebi Osahenye’s installation responds to Atlanta’s local flora and seasonal patterns. A brutalist abstraction of falling pollen, Aesthetics of the Yellow Bloom features draping square and rectangular aluminum panels painted in various hues of yellow.
Conceived during the inaugural LagosAtlanta: Sister City Rising residency, during which Osahenye experienced his first Atlanta spring, the work underscores confrontations between harm and beauty that appear in nature and suggests the complexity of human relationships with natural environments. The arched structure from which the symbolic pollen falls is modeled after a nearby tree that curves severely to find light under the Westside Trail canopy.
While inspired by Atlanta specifically, Aesthetics of the Yellow Bloom is also an extension of concepts and approaches characteristic of Osahenye’s broader practice, such as the artist’s recurrent use of the color yellow and preference for using aluminum to engage themes of industrialism and consumerism, resilience and repurposing.
Artist Bio
Kainebi Osahenye is one of Nigeria’s foremost contemporary artists. His large-scale neo-expressionist paintings and experimental sculptures forged from discarded and repurposed materials are reflections on spirituality, consumerism, and the environment. Osahenye has participated in residency programs and exhibitions in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United States; and he studied fine art and painting at Goldsmiths, University of London, Auchi Polytechnic, and Yaba College of Technology.