Gary Stephens is an American artist that fell in love with Africans and their fabrics as soon as he touched down and strolled down the usual Balogun market in Lagos Island. He couldn’t stop but to come again and have a beautiful exhibition about the fabric pattern at Omenka gallery. Words by Ireho Aito

Though it was a surprise birthday gift from a friend facilitated by a friend his Italian friend Danielle Scenavelli, sometime in February 2012. Gary started a ‘Gulliver’s travels’ inside Lagos city with his friend and got fascinated by Ankara fabric at the ever busy Balogun market in Lagos Island. Balogun market is a typical traditional African market with bargaining and eccentric disorderliness, yet dictated by market forces. The scenes within the market are artistically fascinating. In, fact, Balogun market is a tourist attraction to behold. Gary described the market as ‘heaven’. There, he bought 26 pieces of Ankara textiles, each six meters long to take back to South Africa. the paintings for the show were done on these fabric pieces. While the exhibition at Omenka gallery proper engages urban African style, featuring recent paintings and also on views are photographs and limited edition of lino-prints.

Omenka gallery Lagos was the chosen venue to play host to Gary Stephens and his Ankara fabric adventure. The exhibition was held on the 19^th of October and ran to 2^nd of November, 2012 entitled ‘Ankara Portraits’.  ‘Ankara Portraits’ was a compilation of works done over a period of four years, a shift from Gary Stephens’s earlier focus. The Ankara fabric has a strong cultural, social and economic significance to the African community. According to Gary, “As an artist, globetrotting continents and cultures, my creativity develops from my personal encounters with day to day living among societies and people I meet in Europe, asia, Latin America and Africa.”

Gary refuses to bring to light the personal features of his models, but in distinct manner, gives a story on each model from various African manners of wearing a hat. Either the design being rolled, sitting high, at a certain angle or with a pair of sunglasses. Ora woman in a head scarf, not the woman specifically, but the scarf as the actual subject. He built it on the theme of identity, Self-discovery and history.

Images/Omenka Gallery