« Particles in Motion » is an exhibition celebrating artist and writer Ada Udechukwu‘s return to the art scene through July 31, 2021 at SMO Contemporary Art. This exhibition presents creative work fueled by her exploration of identity and connection with dissimilarity, while considering themes such as love, community, and the need for connection through 36 drawings and 10 poems.
Ink and watercolour on paper,
2020,31 x 26 cm
« Particles in Motion » explores artist and writer Ada Udechukwu‘s connection to her cultural roots. It is a journey of memories, from her youth in the hills of Enugu and Nsukka through her artistic journey in Africa to her move to Los Angeles where she lives today.
« Particles in Motion » is a simple way of conveying to her contemporaries that feeling of pure instinct, of spontaneity in the rounded shapes and wavy lines of her work, of recalling the emotional and spiritual universe of this thing called life.
Ada Udechukwu
Celebrated artist and pioneer of the Nsukka School, Ada Udechukwu was born in 1960 in Nigeria and holds a BA in English and Literature and an MA in Creative Writing and Literature. Since the 1980s, her creative voice has grown through her works in textiles, pen and ink drawings, and watercolor paintings, which she executes alongside her writing.
Today, with « Particles in Motion », she takes us into a world of nuance and depth and brings to the forefront this art deeply influenced by traditional Igbo culture.
A fervent critic of the post-colonial Nigerian condition in the past, like other artists she contributed to the artistic emergence of Nigeria at the end of the 20th century by setting up the Nsukka school. She is introspective and frequently questions her relationship with the internal and external world. Painting, drawing as well as writing are for her tools of self-analysis and denunciation.