Art Basel Hong Kong 2023

We are delighted to announce our participation in the upcoming Art Basel Hong Kong art fair this year. Retro Africa will present Always At the Edge, a selection of works by Victor Ehikhamenor at the art fair taking place from 23rd – 25th March 2023. Ehikhamenor displays an obsessive manipulation of his chosen materials; he uses motifs within Benin culture and the Catholic faith, offering insight into how culture, symbolism, religion and nature are best brought to life. The gallery will showcase a series of new Rosary works by Ehikhamenor, in his signature medium of “tapestry,” made from thousands of plastic rosaries meticulously sewn together.

Victor Ehighale Ehihkamenor is a Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer,once described as "undeniably one of Africa’s most innovative contemporary artists" and one of "42 African Innovators to Watch". Victor's art process is a re-telling of an accumulated constructed, other-worldliness of pictorial stories of many veracities. Largely influenced by his upbringing in a village filled with art, he also taps into his literary heritage, which carries through in the making of his works. These works in their different shapes and styles approach the use of traditional material from the atypical corner of a storyteller. The art proposes that the artist can stretch his/her narratives farther than the restraining corners of stretcher bars of a canvas. Always At The Edge takes a poetic approach referencing one of Hong King’s best known literary figure,  Leung Ping-Kwan’s. The works and title are largely inspired by Ping-Kwan’s poetry. In some of his poetry, the poet alludes to things disappearing with the past, and expresses a sense of pity at history, a “montage of images”, and ponders if the past of a region culminates into only figures of city landmarks. Ping-Kwan’s work and ethos resonates heavily with Ehikhamenor’s practice as an artist and writer who is passionate about culture maintenance and history. Retro Africa is proud to be among one of only two African galleries admitted to the fair this year, as contemporary African art finds its place on an increasingly global stage. The Art Basel Hong Kong fair features premier galleries from Asia, Europe, the Americas and beyond. It provides an in-depth overview of Asia-Pacific's astonishing diversity, as well as global artistic perspectives through Modern and contemporary works.