All artists are dreamers, but there are some whose quest for the ultimate dream takes them away, irrevocably, from the here and now.
Like Paul Gauguin, the French artist who exiled himself to Melanesia in search of the ideal and capturing the soul of those beautiful islands in such vivid colours that the world for an instant had a glimpse of Paradise, or what it might have looked like, through Gauguin's eyes.
"True art is made noble and religious by the mind producing it. For those who feel it, nothing makes the soul more religious and pure" — Michelangelo.
For a long while these images prodded the mind of Chike Azuonye — images of an age of fiendish busyness; demonic unrest; widespread unrealness; seemingly featurelessness; and suffocating restrictiveness. But in the true nature of an artist, he sought to provide an escape, not only for himself but for the millions of humanity for which these images were realities.
Showcasing works from 15 years of production by both artists, the exhibition was titled Colours of Spring and displayed for almost two weeks.
Text accompanying the show informed that both artists see spring as "synonymous with regeneration, aspiration and rebirth... a season of happiness and for celebration, following the dank and dull months of winter."
