t
Yale University, Imo is currently researching the art of southeast Nigeria,
specifically in the area of women’s initiation ceremonies in Ibibioland. His
forthcoming dissertation "Daughters of Seclusion: Aesthetic Revelations in
Mbopo Ceremony" investigates the traditional Ibibio
institution of women's aesthetics and scholarship known as mbopo.
While working on his doctorate Imo continues to paint and draw. Most
recently, his inaugural solo exhibition Anatomy of Beauty: Time.
Transformation. Trauma. was hosted by Westfield State College in
Massachusetts. He has also participated in a number of group exhibitions
including Surrealist Fusion at White Space Gallery in New Haven,
Connecticut and Blacker Than Thou at the Taller Boricua Gallery in
New York City. Imo’s work has also been featured in shows at the Rush Arts
Gallery, Amy Ruth’s Gallery, Simmons Gallery, the West Side Arts Coalition
Gallery, the Post Scrypt Gallery at Columbia University and the
Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale University. Recently Imo contributed
to an exhibition hosted by Yale University that was constructed in
conjunction with a conference on Panafricanism. Additionally, his painting
Continuity was displayed at the 2006 Jackie Robinson Foundation
Annual Awards Ceremony, hosted by Bill Cosby and attended by numerous
dignitaries including the foundation’s founder, the honorable Rachel
Robinson, whose art collection includes one of Imo’s beautiful drawings.
In
the
Blacker Than Thou
exhibition Imo
unveiled what he calls his "greatest acrylic
undertaking:" an eight-foot tall, massive, visual and textual
rhapsody entitled
Guardian:
Self-Portrait with Dividing Sentinels. Although Imo considers this image a
"self-portrait," he also suggests that
Guardian be considered by a number of varying artistic and philosophical angles.
Guardian is the result of Imo's artistic prowess working in concert with his desire to engage his Nigerian cultural ties and traditions.
mo
is keenly aware of his future role as both art historian and artist.
He is currently developing his scholastic and artistic projects
simultaneously, “allowing each to converse with the other,” he says.
He is fascinated by the human form—especially the contrasting
duality of the body’s inherent fragility and strength. This has
caused him to rethink the body with respect to the African Diaspora.
His rendered bodies, which he often depicts as dividing into twos
and threes, being torn apart, or fusing together with other bodies
and forms, are a means for him to discuss the complexities of race,
gender, and identity construction among people of African descent.

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