Chino Amobi - "PREGNANCY PACT" October 8, 2010

Like the Spice Gallery is proud to present artist Chino Amobi in his first New York solo exhibition "PREGNANCY PACT". Featuring all new work from this Richmond, Virginia artist, "PREGNANCY PACT" drops slick surfaced paintings and large scale digital photo collages; against our white walls lay pieces brimming with worldwide influences, ranging from electric-paletted Japanese animation to the muted colors of a hand-carved African mask.

Beneath the blur and gloss of our digital age burns the newly branded "hot media" of Chino Amobi. Unlike Marshall McLuhan's definition (in which "hot media" fits a single sense to a single specific) Amobi's reclamation of the term opens it up into true multimedia. His pieces create suction as they pass, quick kicks through color, shape, and visual vibration. Each movement hyper-stimulates, each color is the individual at war to fix the whole.

Perhaps as one should expect, Amobi's artwork is very close to the music he makes as Diamond Black Hearted Boy. Quick-considered beats layering over harmonized distortions; bass lines like a net over a squirming catch of traditional harmonies. Hurricanes of digital pink, teal, purple, bright neon signs folded into swatches of a toned-down Nigerian palette. Sound or vision, tradition takes on pop: specific painting techniques are employed to provoke images of the artist's African heritage while his digital print collages are a bow to the better-than-life of modern cartoons and animation.

In this generally-figurative show, the symbols can be challenging to fans of the old guard. Headdresses act as shields against the outside, first offering protection for the youthful culture-characters that are cemented to the very heart of these works, and then also defending the viewer personally, allowing a buffer against the disharmony and chaos measured by the daily ins-and-outs of life. Amobi also uses classic anime characters, presenting them as voodoo dolls or fetish creatures. Here they form punishments and wards, judging their little curses on those who might distort real beauty with sarcasm. Make no mistake, this ultra-modern gloss is aware of its shadow.

Maybe the moment of visual poetry, maybe a crystal of paint around that second before things fall apart, or maybe the balance between falling and flying... what is captured in "PREGNANCY PACT" could be the finest hour or the solemn farewell. And who's to say there's truly always a difference?

Chinonyeelu Uchechi Amobi was born in Tuscaloosa, AL in 1984. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009. He has exhibited in group and solo shows in Virginia, and also Nigeria. He currently lives and works in Richmond, VA.

Official Website: http://www.likethespice.com/pregpact/chinoamobi.html