STUDIO MANAGER PICKS EDITION II: A LOOMING MEMORY BY ABI SALAMI

Greetings and welcome to the second edition of Studio Manager Picks! If you are new here, I am Kemi Akinmboni, Studio Manager at Abi Salami Studio and each week I select a piece by Abi Salami that speaks to me and provide you with a deeper dive into the meaning behind the work. Keep reading to see this week’s featured piece.

A Looming Memory by Abi Salami, 78 x 57 inches, 2022, Dallas, Texas, $16,000

For this week’s Studio Manager Pick, I’ve chosen a piece from Abi’s first group international exhibition in Berlin, Germany, A Looming Memory. It is an immediately striking piece from the confident poses of the women, to the mysterious elements, such as the mirror and the bleeding dagger that immediately drew me in. It is instantly enchanting while remaining mystical and unapologetically feminine. Keep reading to find out what Abi had to say about this stunning piece.

Abi Salami at Galerie Droste’s Chronicles 5 exhibition with her piece A Looming Memory in Berlin. Germany (September 2022)

“A Looming Memory was born as a reaction to Roe vs Wade being overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022. As a woman and an artist, my initial reaction was to use my work to express my anger and frustration, but overtime I started to feel a piercing numbness. During my younger years living in Nigeria, I always thought that the US was this amazing place where things worked and justice prevailed, in contrast to Nigeria which seemed riddled with infrastructural issues and deep-seated corruption. So, to see Roe v Wade overturned felt like the land beneath me had evaporated and I was in a free fall.”

The Death of Orpheus by Emile Jean Baptiste Philippe Bin (French, 1825-1897)

“In response, I absconded into my imagination and memory. I thought of the Maenads, the so-called wild women of the Greek god Dionysus. For ancient Greeks, the Maenads represented the danger of women left unchaperoned by male authority, but their defiant personality has made them subjects of interest for artist and sculptors through out the ages. However, most of these artists have been male (the male gaze has entered the chat). With all the emotions I was feeling at the time, it seemed fitting to give these women a different context, a female gaze. I reimagined them as strong confident women, who do what is necessary to maintain their freedom, both politically and sexually. I wanted the piece to be unabashedly feminine yet strong. Balancing the two in the piece was definitely a challenge.”

Process video for A Looming Memory by Nigerian American visual artist Abi Salami

“Also at that time, I was struggling with wanting to be freer in my artistic process. Prior to this piece, I would have every last detail drawn out on my iPad before I moved to the canvas. For this piece, I only drew out the poses of the women and the general layout, but for the details, I decided to challenge myself to figure it out as I was painting. It was one of the most unnerving experiences I had in my Dallas art studio. It took me twice as long to finish it because I kept doubting myself. I love looking at this piece now, because I am proud of myself for just trying to break free. Once I moved to New York a few months later, this piece would be the foundation I needed to truly break away from the iPad and trust in myself and my ability to not only paint but execute.”

Enjoyed reading this post? Have some friends who you think would find this interesting? Share the weekly STUDIO MANAGER PICKS blog with them by simply clicking below.