KATARINA WEX PHOTO

ABIOLA IDOWU’S SACRIFICE OPENS AT THEMUSEUM

Sacrifice is an 11-piece exhibit mixing poetry, paintings with 3D-looking textures and a sculpture to depict the story of the sacrifices the artist has made to dedicate his life exclusively to art. 

Throughout the pieces, he explores the idea that to achieve success one must make sacrifices to do so. Although the opening event set on Feb. 22 was cancelled due to the weather, Sacrifices was well attended by the community at large. 

“I love to motivate people to follow their dreams and reach their potential. In our society, there are so many distractions—so many paths to follow—and people often lose their way. They are blessed with creativity and talent but aren’t able to harness the focus required to put it to real use,” Idowu said. 

“This show is a glimpse of this idea in action. I’ve dedicated my entire life to put my gifts to work and you can see the result in full colour,” he said. 

The dedication to his craft is clear when one views the pieces up close. Each colourful painting reveals itself to have more detail—drawing the viewer in to spend more time taking in the piece as a whole, while ruminating on the accompanying poem beside it. 

For Idowu, each piece has its own energy that resonates differently with the individual viewer based on where they are during different parts of their life. In this collection, the title piece is “Miracle in Me II”. 

“I love the colours and the composition, I also love the important message it brings. The journey of a mother has many parallels to the journey of accomplishing your dreams. From conception, to incubation, to birth. If we model this journey, we can bring forth our own miracles,” Idowu said. 

Motherhood is a recurring theme within this collection, beginning with the first piece a museum attendee sees, the 7’ tall cold cast sculpture called, “Iya Ni Wura (Mother Is Gold)”. A time-consuming process, cold casting is the fruit of much physical labour—this sculture stands as a love letter to both the creative process, and the act of motherhood.  

“Although I often use the analogy of motherhood to represent our own creative journeys, I also recognize that there is nothing like the real thing. To me, nothing is more beautiful or powerful than motherhood, so I wanted to include this piece as a homage to mothers. Without them, we could have no journeys,” Idowu said.   

Idowu said he pours himself into his creations in a process that is both physical and spiritual. He hopes that viewer leaves with a deeper appreciation of the sacrifices one must make in pursuit of their dream. 

“I hope that it reminds people that in order to focus you have to make sacrifices, you have to ignore some of the distractions and not be led down all the paths,” Idowu said. 

“If the show inspires just one person to try harder and put the distractions aside, it will be a success!,” he said.