FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                CONTACT:  202-944-2310

June 5, 2008                                                                            Gwen Parish

PARISH GALLERY PRESENTS WORKS BY TAYO ADENAIKE

This exhibition, entitled “Glimpses of what is and what is not” will open with a reception from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Friday, June 20 and will run through July 15, 2008.  “No art tells the whole truth; but Glimpses of what make us realize, what is the truth and what is not.”  Tayo Adenaike has developed his own visual idiom and mastery of watercolor technique.  His keen sense of color, design and composition, evident in his work, translates into vivid thought provoking images.  He also excels in graphics and computer compositions. 

Born in 1954 in Southwestern Nigeria, Mr. Adenaike had his first formal art lesson in 1967 as a student at the Federal Government College in Warri.   He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art in 1979 and a Master’s in Painting in 1982 from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Following in the Uli painting tradition he is a third generation artist of the Nsukka School.  In his predominant fluid medium, his keen sense of design and composition give strength and character to his paintings.  He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Nigeria, the United States, England, and Germany.  His paintings are in public museum collections and private art collections in 16 countries.  Notably, the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum der Weltkulturen in Frankfurt, Germany have his paintings in their collections. 

Tayo Adenaike lives and works in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria.  Unique among artists in Eastern Nigeria, his Yoruba heritage and artistic sensibility are enriched and layered by his immersion and fluency in Igbo culture and language.  Because of his advertising business he paints mostly at night and weekends.