PRINCE TWINS SEVEN-SEVEN
APRIL 2 -MAY 4, 2002

Porter Faculty Gallery, Porter College, UCSC

Public Reception:
Wednesday, April 10 5-7 p.m.

With live music by Twins Seven-Seven, Dr. Nelson Harrison, Karlton Hester and the UCSC Jazz Vocal Ensemble.

Sponsored by:
African American Innovators, UC Santa Cruz Arts & Lectures, Porter College, UCSC and Sesnon Art Gallery Free and open to the public.


The Fruit Sellers, 1988
acrylic on sculpted wood
24" x 24"
© Prince Twins Seven-Seven

King and Spiritual Bird, 1988
sculpture painting acrylic on wood
24 x 24 1/2"
© Prince Twins Seven-Seven

 

In conjunction with the inaugural Santa Cruz Festival of Global African Music sponsored by African American Innovators and UC Santa Cruz Arts & Lectures, the Porter College Faculty Gallery is proud to present an exhibit of highly unique visual artwork by Nigerian artist and musician Prince Twins Seven-Seven.

Prince Taiwo Olaniyi Oyewale-Toyeje Oyekale Osuntoki, popularly known as Twins Seven-Seven, is a self-taught musician, singer and bandleader, businessman, politician, sportsman, and multimedia artist. He was born in Nigeria and is the only surviving child of seven pairs of twins. His early work is informed by the cosmology and mythology of his upbringing. His later work grapples with contemporary socio-political issues imbued with a subtle and poignant critique of the Nigerial polity. His inventive spirit seems to dance to an internal rhythm that is supplied by his fertile imagination.

Seven-Seven's ability to invent his own paradigm, to subvert popular notions of art, empowers him to be playful and daring. Such arcane rules as perspective and proportion are inapplicable. Though rarely thematically organized, his work has a unique spatial density and compulsive decorativeness. Seven-Seven works in a variety of media from etching to painting, preferring to employ unorthodox materials in a way that complements his unconventional and flamboyant personality. Seven-Seven's style has become the most imitated in contemporary Nigerian art, much to his chagrin. His work has been exhibited all over the world including, The Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Pompidou Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

For more information on events relating to the Global African Musical Festival, please visit http://www.aainnovators.com or phone (831)459-2575.