SMO Contemporary Art is proud to present to ‘GATHERINGS’, a solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture by George Edozie, a celebrated artist, curator, conservator, and community activist. The works in this exhibition touch on our inter-dependency, and how our communal ties, cultural identity, good governance, and familial love are critical for Africa’s sustainable growth and progress.
Multidisciplinary artist George Edozie was born in 1972 in Enugu state, Nigeria. His artistic talents emerged during his early childhood in Nsukka where he would create paintings, sketches and other crafts. He enrolled at the University of Benin where he graduated with a Bachelors Honors degree in Fine and Applied Arts in 1996. After his graduation, Edozie ventured into full time art.
Edozie's impressionist paintings feature angular characters and a rich array of textures, which are integral to his works. His art delves into themes that address social-cultural, political, and economic biases in society, evoking strong emotions such as love, belonging, strife, and joy.
As an experimentalist, Edozie explores various media, including fabric and found materials, to create installation pieces. In his solo exhibition titled 'Shifting the Paradigm,' showcased in 2014 at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Florida, he challenged the narratives and biases of cultural art in relation to the artist's life. The installation featured paintings and life-size pieces crafted from fabric, paint, feathers, and found materials, some of which bore a striking resemblance to the igbo mmanwu, referencing Onitsha cultural background, knowledge, spirituality, and traditional art. This exhibition celebrated Edozie's culture and identity as an Igbo person and was listed among the top four best exhibitions during Art Basel Miami that year.
Edozie is also an art curator and art restoration expert. He has facilitated the conservation and restoration of artworks in various media for important collections and galleries, including SMO Contemporary Art, Hour Glass Gallery, Alexis Gallery, Arthouse Contemporary, AFA Framers, Thought Pyramid Gallery, the Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe Collection for the Chimedie Museum, the Mike Oduah Collection, the Frederick Udaka Collection, and many others. His restoration work on canvas includes valuable paintings by renowned artists such as Ben Enwonwu, Uche Okeke, Nelson Cole, Oseloka Osadebe, Ablade Glover, Twin 77, Gani Odutokun, Ben Osaghae, and Abiodun Olaku.
He has conserved and restored works in a range of media, and in 2020, restored over a hundred works including fibreglass sculptures, wood carvings, ceramics, metal foils and paintings for a private collection in Lagos. Edozie has also worked extensively, overseeing commissions and restorations of artworks in stained glass, mosaic, brass and bronze for the Catholic Church in Nigeria, in churches across the country.
Edozie is also an internationally recognized artist, who has exhibited extensively in both solo and group exhibitions in Nigeria, the United States, and France. Some of which include; ‘New Nigerian Conjunctures: The Art of George Edozie’, National Museum Lagos, Nigeria, (2018); ‘Back to Black Art Africa’, Art Basel Miami (2017); ‘Afro Love’, Alexis Gallery, Lagos (2015); African Way of Art, La Galerie Vendome. His works have found homes in both public and private collections and spaces like the. Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, the Indianapolis Museum, and the Studio Museum Harlem in New York, The Pan Atlantic University Museum, Lagos and the Chimedie Museum, each piece, serving as a unique educational resource for visitors. A writer, Edozie co-authored the book ;101 Contemporary Artists, A Celebration of Modern Nigerian Art and Nigerian Contemporary Art which was published in 2010.
Edozie is the president of the Guild of Fine Artists GFA and a member of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA).
