Having won the first Lighthouse Open Call last year, self-taught artist Adilson Naueji is now presenting his first solo exhibition, BH5 Boscombe Beyond Your Eyes, which opens on Tuesday 10 June and runs until Wednesday 30 July.
The portraits in the show celebrate the people and place of Boscombe, where Adi has lived with his family since coming to the UK seven years ago from Angola where he grew up.
“I love this community so the exhibition celebrates what Boscombe is actually like, not what some people think it is like,” he explains.
“Boscombe is an eclectic, bohemian, creative place with lots of energy from all the different cultures and communities that meet here. In my day job I work as a kitchen manager, but on my day off I walk the streets of Boscombe and talk to people. We have a conversation about what brought them to that particular spot at that particular moment and if they agree I might take their photograph, which I then turn into a painting.
“So the portraits are about people and place and the moment.”
The striking and perceptive portrait that won the Open Call was called Maureen after its subject and Adi is still in touch with her.
“We meet up every few weeks, but none of the other people in my paintings have seen their portraits – the first time they do will be at Lighthouse so I hope they like them!”
Adi started drawing and painting during the Covid lockdowns “as a way to release the pressure of being in the house all day,” but has developed his style even more since winning the Open Call.
“I used to work mainly in acrylics, but now have expanded to use oils and pastels as well, so my latest work is more in mixed media. The feeling behind the painting is the same though.
“In art we always see paintings of kings and powerful people, but we don’t often see the ordinary people who go about their lives and make communities what they are. I want to record those people and place them in the buildings and architecture of the place I love.”
A few months ago Adi went back to Angola after one of his brothers passed away, but even in grief he managed to find some solace in art.
“It was very sad, but I realised I would like to paint some subjects from Angola and I feel there would be some similarities with the paintings I make in Boscombe because both communities include people who have come from other places to make their homes there, just like I have in Boscombe.
“Mixed communities like these make life richer, wherever they are.”
(NC)
