Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu - Banana Republic
Visual arts

This is the first solo exhibition in Australia by mixed heritage, Rome-based artist Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, in the project space at Gallery Barry Keldoulis, one of Sydney's premier art galleries.

This is a free event.

  • When

    6 February - 10 March

    11am-6pm (Tues - Sat)

  • Where

    Gallery Barry Keldoulis
    285 Young St,
    Waterloo, New South Wales

    View map

    Wheel Chair Access

  • Cost

    Free Event

This is the first solo exhibition in Australia by mixed heritage, Rome-based artist Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, in the project space at Gallery Barry Keldoulis, one of Sydney's premier art galleries.


The works include sculptures made from bronze, terracotta and cardboard, challenging different stereotypes. With a degree of irony, they are inspired by Pop Art, Minimalism and the bold graphic patterns represented in the tribal art of the artist's East Nigerian father.


Jebila spent his school years in Australia. Jebila's works tackle such issues as racism, homophobia and the contemporary myths of masculinity and anthropology. Both explicit and subverted, the recent series of "banana sculptures" made in Jebila's Italian studio specifically for this Mardi Gras exhibition, play with the phallic, political and racist connotations of the banana, and its history in colonial trade.


Image above: Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, History Painting (after Géricault), 2011, 130.5 x 176.5 cm, enamel on banana box cardboard, courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney



 
Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, Banana Sculpture VIII, 2011, banana boxes and mixed media, 43 x 41 x 25 cm, courtesy Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney

Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu, 2012, photo: John McRae, courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis

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