Innovative Art Gallery Promotes Art During the Pandemic

Rem Son Art, The Consult of Elders in Friendship, 2021, Acrylic

The Innovative Art Gallery is an art initiative that initially intended to present artwork in four American cities: Atlanta, New York, Miami, and San Francisco. However, due to the pandemic in 2020, we now focus heavily on presenting art through online platforms to reach everyone. Both artists and art lovers have used arts and crafts during and after the pandemic. Many people produced arts and crafts for the first time to deal with the lockdown and mental health issues that arose while being confined at home during the general quarantine. One of the educational art projects we offered was teaching how to make face masks, focusing on utilizing recycled fabric (old cloths) and using hand stitching.

The Innovative Art Gallery in Atlanta is blessed with several collaborating artists assisting with the ATL-Innovative Art Residency and Combined Arts Project. Among these artists are Carmen Bermúdez, Dusten Sonnon, Gabriel Libro, Rem Son, Mike Holsomback and Doba Afolabi. The project aims to create new art and present it both online and in the four cities previously mentioned. A new art platform (innovativeartgallery.com) was created to make our art and artists’ works available at all levels.

Antonio McIlwaine is a versatile artist working with several mediums. He is an Atlanta-based artist, better known as ARM OF CASSO, that has joined the project recently. Hopefully, he will bring his live performances to some of our lined-up projects in the future.

Doba Afolabi is one of our resident artists here at the Innovative Art Gallery in Atlanta and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He has captured the series of moments in words and colors by writing the following stories below. We hope you enjoy his stories:

“Never say never”

is a popular statement used by many songwriters and seen as themes in motion pictures, but the reality of the words would not be easily speculated until the end of 2019. I was just about rounding off a collaboration project with the Innovative Art Gallery in Atlanta after leaving Art Basel Miami, when I was suddenly jammed with news that I had to withdraw from all outdoor activities and shut down. Uncommon vocabulary filled the air and everyone grudgingly muttered, “Quarantine!” Forced to reschedule, I enjoyed the company of my easel and I had corners of my room packed with paraphernalia of my trade. To me, more opportunities to roll out new works had just begun. Quarantine and online collaboration series came off my easel every moment. I had more time to finish works in the process of adequate attention and detailing which enabled several masterpieces; some of which were eagerly collected later.

As the world entered a readjustment we proudly tagged as the new normal, the paranoia of many turned into “paranoiART” for artists, or may I say for me. My first pandemic masterpiece which I titled Frontliners in the Bloody War, is a piece I painted behind the screen of my residence overlooking the passage of a nearby hospital. This piece is in honor of the people that left us and in appreciation of the heroic work done by health care workers across the United States. The new medical gear of the hospital staff, the doctors, nurses, janitors, and everyone else under masks, even the roaring ambulance that bellowed through the streets came in as a major mechanical component in this piece which ranges between abstraction and Impressionism. It took a long time for me to finish Frontliners in the Bloody War, but I eventually did, and it was instantly collected after the situation eased down.

Doba Afolabi, The Frontliners, 2020, Acrylic

My first major interaction with other artists came as an interview from Ukraine with an artist who saw me on the media. We exchanged ideas and talked about our work and Vera, who also loved my works, mentioned to my hearing for the first time a new acronym that ebbs into the art market lately: “NFT” or “non-fungible token”. Several other activities came in on Zoom, and cyber air was filled with webinars while many shows and big markets would not happen as scheduled. I got several letters of apologies for cancellation of events, including my annual art show with the Innovative Art Gallery, and private sponsors were forced to withdraw.

I may not hide the fact that I was fortunate to keep my head and soul in the balance with the help of God. This is a career that I never knew would greatly impact my life. Despite depression almost ramming in, attention to my colors and strokes took a vital place in my heart for the first time. I’m used to isolation as required by my work ethic and composition of art pieces which sometimes may not enjoy sociability. Several other works were rolled out and there are some changes in paradigm, but the moment vaccines were announced, most especially Pfizer who showed my works during Black History Month at its world headquarter office in New York years back, a relief came on me. My body rejuvenated with confidence as people gradually started moving from shutdown and I was able to procure art materials for more works.

The last piece I vehemently made to serenade this scientific achievement was titled “Liberty Doubling Up”, interpreting my hectic experience of getting two shots of vaccination from Pfizer. Innovative Art Gallery is one of my major representatives in the USA and has just asked me in for their Art Collaborative Project. I am also in a full swing of preparation for 2021 Art Basil Miami. I shall sure hit the road again in this trade; I will not compromise for life.

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