Osaretin Ugiagbe: Unbelonging

On View: July 8 – August 13, 2017

Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451

Osaretin Ugiagbe’s artistic path has been shaped by random events. While working in a South Bronx hospital, Mr. Ugiagbe took up both painting and photography after chance encounters with artists and photographers who encouraged his creativity.

Exhibition curated by Cynthia Rivera and Michael Kamber.

Spanish translations by Maria de la Paz Galindo.

Unbelonging is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by Ghetto Film School.

The Nigerian-born Ugiagbe’s photographs document the beauty and sorrows witnessed during a life split between the surging Bronx streets and the half-built flyovers of Lagos, Nigeria, population 20 million. In 2002, then 16-year-old Ugiagbe left Nigeria for the Bronx, joining his father who had already emigrated to the US. Fifteen years later, Ugiagbe maintains an identity firmly planted in both worlds.

In his black and white photos, many taken without looking through the camera, Ugiagbe reacts to sun and shadow, and to the faces and bodies around him–both in the Bronx and in trips back to Nigeria. He crafts his images through the inventive use of light, focusing on poignant and compelling themes of displacement and dislocation, and a surging, scrambling humanity looking for something better. Or sometimes just looking.

The exhibited photos express Ugiagbe’s individual path, but also reflect the larger framework of a fragmented struggle for cultural identity–unbelonging in the place left, not belonging at the point of arrival.

Ugiagbe’s paintings strongly influence–and are influenced by–his photographic process. His paintings, many created on canvases laid on his bed, reflect Ugiagbe’s emotions, desires and personal history. This exhibition is the first time the BDC has shown paintings. Ugiagbe is a member of their Bronx Photo League. He will begin study at London’s prestigious Royal College of Art in the fall.