By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (5 February 2019)
Paris-based
Evans Mbugua is unashamedly joyful about life. He illustrated that joy, what he
calls his ‘zest for life’, every day in and through his art.
He is one of
those rare kind of guys who has no time for cynicism or negativity since he’s
too busy embracing life’s beauty and expressing it through various art forms
and techniques.
A few of
those forms converge in the portraits on display currently at Circle Art
Gallery where he’s sharing exhibition space with Nigerian painter Dennis
Osadebe in a show entitled ‘A Spectacular Now’.
The two
artists are quite different in their approach to painting. But by curatorial
coincidence, their color palettes complement one another exceptionally well.
Dennis paints modern interiors in a style that reminds me vaguely of the
British painter David Hockney. On the other hand, Hockney doesn’t paint walls
that are a deep dazzling royal blue. Nor do his interiors include floors that
are a richly pastel pink. But both artists paint home interiors in a minimalist
style. And while both tend to include at least one person per painting,
Hockney’s people seem almost incidental, Osadebe’s are prominent and masked as
he’s apparently paying homage to his African heritage.
Evans on the
other hand paints faces that are open, accessible and seemingly familiar, much
like the artist himself. This show includes only artworks that he’s conceived
since November when he came back home to see his people and have this Circle
show. As such, his portraits are primarily of family and close friends.
His
brother’s family has served as some of his sweetest models. But it’s the woman
with a sunflower in her hair, a fan in hand, hot pink lipstick and wearing his
signature designer glasses that I find most striking. Perhaps that’s because
I’d just met his mother and knew instantly this was her lovely portrait. It
also illustrated his inclination to amplify the beautiful features of his
models.
He does the
same in his one self-portrait in the show. Only he beautifies his ‘Selfie
Sunny’ by covering most of his face with a giant sunflower that draws your eyes
away from the artist and into the pink and blue pointillist interior of the
flower.
All Evans’
portraits at Circle share the same set of techniques, namely photography,
digital art and oil painting. Using various ideographs or digitized images
drawn from everyday life that he repeats geometrically on paper as a print background,
Evans then covers each print with a smooth layer of perspex (thin acrylic
glass) on which he finally paints portraits in oils.
Evans moved
to Paris when he was barely 20 years in 1999. But he had an idea of what he
wanted to do and where he wanted to go. Having taken a single semester of French
at Alliance Francaise in Nairobi, he (being a quick learner) mastered the
language soon enough, attended art school and then became both an artist and
designer.
He’s done
everything from graphic design and advertising work to fashion design and
exhibiting everywhere from the Gallery of African Art (GAFRA) in London to
assorted up market galleries in Paris, Spain, Germany and Lagos, Nigeria.
But one of
the most incredible opportunities that Evans casually mentioned in conversation
at his Circle Art opening was his commission from the luxury French jewelry
brand, Chaumet to design an entire high-end collection of Africa-inspired
jewelry which they entitled ‘Tresors d’Afrique.’
Designing
brooches, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and even watches which Chaumet set in
diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals and gold, Evans easily rose to the
challenge. But one needs to go on the Chaumet website to see his unbelievable
beautiful jewelry yourself.
Chaumet had
already commissioned designers to create collections inspired by imperial
Russia and Japan in Spring under the umbrella of “Les Mondes de Chaumet” (The Worlds
of Chaumet).
But it was
only after meeting Evans and seeing his art that they selected sub-Saharan
Africa as the final ‘destination of their campaign. Simultaneously, they invited him to create the ‘Tresors d’Afrique’
collection.
Each piece
in the line is made with precious gemstones. Each stands singularly as an
unabashed symbol of wealth and status. It was fitting then for super-models
Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova and Liya Kebede to arrive at Evans’
collection launch wearing his jewelry.
Too bad he
didn’t bring any of it home to Kenya to include in his Circle Art show. But his
paintings have a dazzling effect in their own way.
‘A Spectacular
Now’ runs until 16 February.
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