Opening: Saturday, 29 April 2017
Venue: One Off Contemporary
Exhibition Ends: 23 May 2017
About the Exhibition
Born in 1976 in Kenya, Okello studied art at the Buru Buru Institute of Fine Art and then went on to work at his chosen profession as a resident at the Kuona Trust in 2004.Success came early with his allegorical works being bought by major collectors Robert Loder and Robert Devereux. These pieces depicted various mythologies from both the Luo and Kikuyu tribes, using animals as the central characters. The highly acclaimed ‘Masquerade series’ followed. Two works from that series sold for considerable sums both at the Bonhams Art Auction in London and the Circle Art Auction at home.
In addition to exhibitions in Kenya, India and France, Okello has exhibited in ‘Pop up Africa – One Off Gallery, Kenya’ at the Gallery of African Art in Cork Street, London in 2014.
This February his work was on show at the Heong Gallery, at Downing College, Cambridge in a group show of some of Robert Devereux’s collection titled ‘When the heavens meet the earth’. As Okellos star rises, he does indeed look to be fulfilling the prophesy of being one of the most important artists of his generation.
Robert Devereux says that whilst his ‘work appears quite traditional, he is in fact a deeply conceptual artist’ who ‘has a fierce but quiet passion for his vocation and has managed to remain uncompromisingly himself, despite the influence of the western hegemony.’
http://www.oneoffafrica.com/anthony-okello-black-tie-affair-exhibition.html
