Afro-Pop Art: Politics, Life and Lyrics by Ghariokwu Lemi
As the title says… it is a visual commentary or issues ranging between politics, life and lyircs in a pop-art style… all by a legendary Nigerian artist by the name of Ghariokwu Lemi.

When it came to first impressions I was confused. The exhibition was set in a couple of barges. One for the art, the other one was for food, drink, music and had a screen with Lemi’s old and new work being projected. As Shanell caught up with Lemi all I could see was photoshopped print outs that that did have a great message but they were still photoshopped prints cut out and pasted. In fact one was a colorized email forward! As I was introduced to Lemi he explained taking a new direction so that was good to hear and what an amazing person himself… always lively and happy… and he’s like that sober. I warm up to his work as Shanell tells me about his past work and how she was his personal photographer touring in the USA. Even she was surprised by this new direction because his previous work was more detailed and more hands on instead of digital. There’s images of Michael Jackson and also one of Barak Obama in the campaign style posterization called Red, Blue and Black. Another one with someone getting stoned and I forgot to ask Lemi what NNG means coz the person smokes those letters out. The one I was really impressed with was one of Fela Kuti where it’s mostly colorized clips from papers about the star and Lemi but it took me a while to make out the face of Fela Kuti on it. And then there were the series of solidarity in 3 square images called Union, Unity and Unite… at first I thought it was saying something about the UN in Africa but after reading their names it all fell in place lol.

Anyway so head for some drink, snacks and chit chat. Note: There were normal snacks and also cherry tomatoes and Fox mints? I must admit I scoffed on the tomatoes. I come across a dude called Aj and he gives me his card… I see what he does… and it’s like his card itself had all the magic words… “music + art + creativity”… I’ll definitely be in touch dude. He was also the DJ and I noticed the deck had a telephone handset… nice touch! As I look at the screen I see Lemi’s old work and now I’m hooked… this guy has done a number of Fela Kuti’s album covers. Shanell mentions him working for Puma. And then I get a hold of his program and read through his biography… major props man! Cartoonist for the papers, 26 iconic covers for Fela Kuti, more covers for another record label. By 2000 he’d created 2000 album covers! Political cartoons, commissioned by MTV to paint a mural in New York, Stussy releases 4 of his designs for limited edition T-shirts, lots of exhibitions, awards… wow… this guy left me inspired. All that work, especially on such serious subjects, and he’s still so happy-go-lucky? Then again art does that and more. Big up Shanell and big up Lemi.