Art & Life with Austin Uzor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Uzor.

Austin, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was that kid who sketched all his teachers at the back of his notebook while they taught in class, an obsession that saw me develop special skills after discovering that I was more of a visual learner. Although self-taught to an extent my early years in art saw me question everything around me, this led to new discoveries as my quest and desire for artistic Knowledge knew no boundaries. Born and raised in Nigeria, I had a different orientation as what the importance of art was to a society and the financial implications in a third world country. No sane parent ever wanted their kids to be artists as the fragile nature of the economy had no place for them thereby making them financially unstable if they decided to delve into it. In my case, I was a rebel and wanted to be an artist or nothing else. It was me against the world as I stuck to my dreams and did not care about the backlash. It Hasn’t been an easy journey but I have been able to pull through. I completed my undergraduate studies in visual arts where I bagged my Bachelor’s degree in Painting and Drawing in 2013, Shortly after I moved to the USA to pursue my dreams and I have been practicing ever since.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am a painter and draftsman whose primary makes are oil paintings on canvas and ballpoint pen drawings on paper. I find inspiration for my work by interacting with my immediate environment and most times from the most unlikely sources, everything around me inspires me and as such, I pay attention to my environment because every single object has a story and most of them are yet untold.

My art is a means for me to explore the idea of having a “home” while feeling “homeless”. I based my earlier investigation into the troubling and inhumane journey of African Migrants through the Sahara desert and Mediterranean sea to Europe. With recent events, I wonder about the politics of conflict in sub Saharan Africa and its ripple effect and contribution towards human displacement. This focus is personal; It is an introspective conversation centered on my current status as an immigrant.

As an immigrant with a slightly privileged experience, I am mirroring and at the same time creating a middle ground to address the side effects of being displaced from one’s natural habitat while focusing on the ultimate struggle of calling somewhere else home.

From my physical and immediate environment to my inner subconsciousness my art is a direct representation of emotions and feelings that radiate and linger around my visual experience and memory of what used to be normal, but now somewhat distant. My thoughts and work process are the connecting lines that round off my concerns and weird feelings about a place I barely know, but now call “home”, a place where I feel out of place, yet like a lucid dream I exist in both spheres.

Feeling locked out of both worlds, this visual experience is translated into dreamscapes, dystopian sceneries, fragments of trauma, discomfort, endless barriers, tension and the reality of existing in strange places and spaces. Like the blurry lines between dreams and realities and with the concept of an old film and a cinematic view, using myself, I interrogate the psychological placements and integration of migrants into new environments and its lasting effects on their lives.

From my endless exploration of visual vocabularies, every single gesture and depiction of objects is channeled towards creating a cinematic performative environment associated closely to what used to be a normal place but is no longer recognizable. The use of visual architectural structures, forms and figures in unrecognizable spaces while juxtaposing reinvented sceneries with deeper imagery is the therapeutic process of getting that closure that almost never exists. From my poetic use of space, forms and figurative interpretations to the atmospheric scenery and color language, and to the swift and fine movement of an army of organised and carefree lines pushing for a home that no longer exists, all that is left is just debris of fast fading memories, I try to keep it alive by making my art as fragments stitched together to create a world that once existed and now can only be accessed by a few.

With all of this, I want people to be immersed in my singular story in order to understand and judge both me and similar people differently.

Artists rarely, if ever pursue art for the money. Nonetheless, we all have bills and responsibilities and many aspiring artists are discouraged from pursuing art due to financial reasons. Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with prospective artists?
This might be the toughest challenge yet, I think as a creative one needs to strike the balance. You need money to pay bills and purchase materials and you equally need time to create works and feel at your best while being productive. If one works out a solid plan everything would fall in place, No matter what happens always create time to make art. Just like working out at the gym in order to keep fit one can develop a plan that would help them give equal time and attention to artmaking. Develop that plan and stick to it, maybe weekends, maybe early mornings or late evenings during the week. Just anything that would structurally make you commit to making art no matter how much time you’ve got left in the day.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Right now, I do not have a gallery representation but every now and then I get involved in a couple of exhibition shows Nationwide. So people can support by following me on social media and keeping up with events as they unfold around them.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 3238478142
• Email: uzaustin@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austin.uzor.7/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austin.uzor.7

Image Credit:
Austin Uzor

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