When Dusk Falls

18 July - 31 August 2024

  • When Dusk Falls

    Jamie Luoto - Tonia Nneji

  • Jamie Luoto

    Jamie L. Luoto (b. 1987, USA) lives and works in the San Francisco North Bay. Predominantly selftaught, Luoto’s intimate self-portraits...
    Jamie L. Luoto (b. 1987, USA) lives and works in the San Francisco North Bay. Predominantly selftaught, Luoto’s intimate self-portraits explore the ways in which our identity is shaped, both from within ourselves and by society at large. Her current focus is on illuminating the lasting psychological impact of sexual trauma. 
    Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) When Dusk Falls, duo exhibition, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2024); Art in the Library Featuring Jamie L. Luoto, Napa County Library, Napa, USA (2019).
     
    Group Exhibitions include (Upcoming) Reflections and Refractions, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, USA (2026); Mirror, Mirror, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2024);  EXPO Chicago, Kristin Hjellgjerde Gallery, Chicago, IL (2024); The de Young Open, de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA (2023); Nude, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, USA (2023); Portals, Northern California Women's Caucus for Art, Arc Galley (online) (2023); Inside a Memory, Visionary Art Collective (online) (2023); True North, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, USA (2022); Stories from My Childhood, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, USA (2022); Portrait International Juried Exhibition, Li Tang Gallery (online) Through Mossy Ways, I Like Your Work Spring Exhibition (online) (2022); All About Women, Marin Society of Artists’ Gallery (online) (2021); Chasing Ghosts V, Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, USA (2020); Therefore, I Am, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana,USA (2019); Animalia, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, USA (2019); Defining the Art of Change in the Age of Trump, The Center for Contemporary Political Art, Washington, D.C. (2018); Art Elevated, an outdoor public art gallery presented by the Garment District Alliance and Artrepreneur, New York, USA (2018); Art in an Age of Anxiety, Arts Guild of Sonoma, Sonoma, USA (2018); It’s Time: An Uncensored Look at the Time's Up and #MeToo Movements, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, USA (2018); Pride and Prejudice: Gender Realities in the 21st Century, ARC Gallery, Chicago, USA(2018); To Be Heard, Old Courthouse Arts Center, Woodstock, USA Persistence, Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, USA (2018); Identity Spectrum, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, USA Journey to America, The Art Center, Highland Park, USA (2018); Avian: Birds in a Changing World, Gallery 5, Oakhurst, USA (2017 ); The FL3TCH3R Exhibit, Reece Museum, Johnson City, USA Nasty Women, The Knockdown Center, New York, USA (2017).
     
    Highlights and Collections  
    Jamie Luoto’s painting We Hunt the Doe was a semifinalist for the Smithsonian Institute’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, 2022. Her work has been featured in publications such as Booooooom.com, ArtMaze Mag, and New American Paintings; appeared on platforms such as Juxtapoz and Hyperallergic. Luoto's work can be found in private and public collections globally including Green Family Art Foundation (Dallas, USA) and Il Castello (Nocciano, Italy).

  • Tonia Nneji

    Tonia Nneji (b. 1992, Lagos State, Nigeria) is a contemporary artist that currently lives and works in Calgary-Alberta, Canada. She...
    Tonia Nneji (b. 1992, Lagos State, Nigeria) is a contemporary artist that currently lives and works in Calgary-Alberta, Canada. She comes from a long line of traditional carvers and masquerade carriers. Following the family tradition of artistry, she graduated with a BA  (Hons) in Visual Arts from the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2016. Known for her use of bold colours and intricate patterns, Nneji’s work explores the relationship between trauma and the female body. Drawing from her experience in dealing with personal health issues, she confronts a culture of suppression and silence on women’s physical and mental health, body autonomy and sexual harassment in a bid to create safe spaces where conversations could be held freely.  Her work also investigates the nature of commemorative fabrics and the ways they represent and transcend notions of place and belonging. This preoccupation with body forms and textile material navigates cultural and social meanings of fabric in contemporary African societies while also exploring the protective qualities of clothing.
     Solo Exhibitions include (upcoming) Duo Show with Jamie Luoto, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin (2024); You May Enter, Reel Gallery Nigeria (2020)
     
    Group Exhibitions include From Lagos to Seoul, Voda art gallery, South Korea (2023); Stop, Listen. CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden (2021); Orita Meta. Rele Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2021); Dancing in dark :mes, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, England (2021); It’s a wrap, Rele gallery, Onikan, Lagos , Nigeria (2021); Young Contemporaries Alumni Exhibition, National Museum of Art, Onion, Lagos, Nigeria (2020); Young Contemporaries, Rele Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria (2019); Afrika Savoies, Bassens, France (2019); It’s a wrap, Rene Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria (2019); Wake Up Essence of Afrika, Gallery88, Miamibeach, Florida, USA (2018); Soul Attraction Revealed, Gallery88, Miamibeach, Florida, USA (2018); Sisters: The art Nigerian Women, Carnegie gallery, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Ohio, USA (2018); Emotions, a salon, New Jersey, USA (2018); Next of kin, Thought Pyramid, Ikon, Lagos (2017); Afro Modernism, Retro Africa Gallery, Abuja, Nigeria (2016); October Rain, National Museum of Art, Onion, Lagos (2016);
     
    Highlights and Collections 
    Tonia Nneji’s work has been featured and can be found in publications of Forbes Africa, 30 under 30, Class of 2022; New York Times: From Lagos to Los Angeles, An African art Gallery arrives (February 17, 2021); Vogue, in the art of Tonia Nneji and Zohra Opoku, poignant narratives of healing, (13 November 2020); ‘The New Guard’, South African Art Fair relaunches as FNB art joburg, Harper’s Bazaar; Harper’s bazaar US: The New Guard. In Celebration of Black History Month; Article written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (February 2020);  Nation Newspaper, ALERTS! Female visual artists on the rise, The Vanguard (2017); The Guardian newspaper: Nneji,The Fluidman and his peers, (October 8th, 2017);  BBC Africa, International Women’s Day by Chimamanda Adichie. woman.ng : Anthonia Nneji Art speaks about struggles, she is not doing Art for Art sake, but also for life sake; Solo Exhibition You May Enter, Rele Gallery, Lagos, (2020); Residency, Art Dubai Residency (2019); Recipient of the Ronke Ekwensi Fellowship, New Jersey (2018); Art Dubai (2022); Art Paris (2021); FNB Art Joburg (2019).

  • When Dusk Falls

    Cat-like a naked woman dips her head to lap at a pool of milk while in a different shadowy world,...
    Cat-like a naked woman dips her head to lap at a pool of milk while in a different shadowy world, another woman stands, barely visible in the gloom, a blazing red belt of fabric tied around her waist. When Dusk Falls, a duo exhibition of paintings by Jamie Luoto and Tonia Nneji at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin, explores the complex psychological impacts of trauma in relationship to the female body and the potential of art as a powerful form of revelation and resistance. 
     
    Jamie Luoto’s paintings form part of an ongoing investigation into her own experience of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Drawing on the occult and horror genre, she uses a symbolic visual language to make visible unseen symptoms of sexual abuse such as flashbacks, nightmares, dissociation, and intrusive thoughts. While Luoto typically works with self-portraiture, for this exhibition she has also created a series of smaller, still lifes that explore the ways in which our internal experience can bleed into and alter our perception of the world around us. For instance, in Are You Good Men and True? a white porcelain cat becomes both a surrogate for the female figure, pushed into a corner, and a figure of authority, passing judgment on the ‘men’, who are alluded to through condoms, a recurring motif in Luoto’s work. The same imagery is repeated in The Douter where the cat – now real – appears possessed, its eyes reflecting the outline of condoms, or ‘ghosts’, as Luoto calls them, and again in At the Event Horizon where a female figure adopts cat-like behaviour to lick at a pool of liquid in which condoms appear rising up from the surface.  
     
    The transference of imagery between different paintings adds to the feeling of claustrophobia, which is at its most heightened in The Black Fell Open – the largest and perhaps most complex work in the show. Once again there is a naked figure on all fours, this time facing away from us with a black cat winding between her thighs. The cat is simultaneously exposing itself while shielding the figure. It appears to go in through her legs to seemingly emerge as another figure, crouched and wearing a paper bag over its head. This, Luoto, explains is ‘the dissociated self.’ Above them, dead birds hang upside down from strings and scattered across the sheet are red apples being nibbled by mice. Are we encountering the aftermath of a ritual? Some kind of nest? A fairy-tale or a nightmare? As with all of Luoto’s compositions, the imagery is loaded with multiple potential meanings, allowing the viewer to find their own points of connection. 
     
    Nigerian artist Tonia Nneji similarly uses symbolism to confront a culture of suppression and violence against women, particularly in relation to the influence of religion. In 2014 she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome but rather than being offered medical assistance, she was encouraged by family members to attend church programs. ‘It was their understanding of life and I never faulted them for it,’ she says, ‘but sadly in Nigeria and most of west Africa religion comes before medicine.’ As a result, Nneji, as well as many other women, ended up feeling powerless over her own body, a feeling which is reflected in the dark, cavernous backgrounds in which her figures appear. 
     
    At the same time, her figures command and reclaim these spaces. They are clothed in bright, patterned fabrics and gaze directly at the viewer. In one work, a woman sits at the top of a corridor of intricate arches that evokes the imposing grandeur of church architecture. Her pose is one of defiance and indifference – she is barefoot, her dress falling off her shoulders and down between her open legs. Elsewhere, resistance is more subtly conveyed. For instance, in another painting set in a similar type of space, a figure stands wearing a dress that is emblazoned with logos depicting the (male) reverend and various saints. ‘We live in a society where people who pledge allegiance to a thing always want to show off that they belong to that group,’ says Nneji. ‘It’s common to go to a particular church  and see people wearing customised prints made by that church.’ In Nneji’s work, this kind of fabric becomes a symbol of ownership and entrapment rather than belonging, but it is one that her figures rebel against through their own embellishments such as a flash of red fabric tied around the waist or clasped in a hand.
     
    Importantly, in the work of both artists, the female body itself is also a site not just of violence but of resistance. They empower the female body by making visible the unseen and the repressed, by sharing their trauma and vulnerability but by also confronting the viewer and eliciting discomfort. These are paintings that challenge us to not look away.