The transdecollage of an urban conscience through “Talking Walls” by Onyis Martin

Until September 8, 2024, OOA Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Onyis Martin, entitled “Talking Walls”. Curated by Sabo Kpade, this event highlights one of Africa’s most prominent contemporary painters of his generation. Through a series of visually striking yet subtly profound works, Onyis Martin shares a reflection of his experiences in the vibrant metropolis of Nairobi.

Born in 1987, Onyis Martin is an artist who has profoundly transformed the East African art scene. Based in Nairobi, he pushes the boundaries of various artistic mediums, including painting, sculpture and conceptual art. His innovative artistic imprint redefines visual paradigms and is attracting growing interest within the art world. The “Talking Walls” exhibition reflects this unique approach, fueled by a documented yet experimental process that underpins his creations.

Through “Talking Walls”, Onyis Martin enriches Barcelona’s artistic space with twelve paintings and nine works on paper. A sound installation completes the experience, immersing visitors in the captivating tumult of Nairobi’s sounds, recorded by the artist. This auditory dimension, created on site, aims to offer the public total immersion. In short, the works on display harmonize perfectly, making possible an unprecedented visual and sensory exploration for all visitors.

In this unique atmosphere, Onyis Martin presents two ways of interpreting his creations. He captivates the public with a moving aesthetic, then plunges into a deeper dimension where his works seem to unveil a psychic cartography of urban consciousness, underlining the essential role of art in society and image-making. Through the “Talking Walls” exhibition, the African artist emerges as the torch-bearer of a new artistic direction.

Tattered posters, popularized in France in the 60s by the New Realism movement, paved the way for the concept of transdécollage. Through her exclusive and experimental approach to contemporary African art, Onyis Martin manages to establish a significant transition, linking the historical context of decollage and Lettrism in 20th-century Central Europe to 21st-century dynamics in a post-colonial East African city.

The works presented in this exhibition blur the boundaries between drawing, painting and collage, captivating visitors with a variety of application and décollage techniques. Between images reduced to bare surfaces, different modes of paint application and inscriptions incorporating numbering systems, the public has no time to marvel at one detail before being challenged by another.

In his exhibition “Talking Walls”, Onyis Martin reveals a rich and striking iconographic grammar. Through a captivating immersion, he weaves together the metaphorical and the formal, the immaterial and the tangible, rationalism and plastic expression. This alchemy creates fertile ground for questioning the dynamics of mass capitalism, the challenges of consumerism, and the essence of African spirituality. Borrowing from the mediums of take-off and painting, the artist deploys a discursive method that enriches social reflections and illuminates the collective consciousness of a people in search of identity.