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Cynthia Omotoyosi Ugwudike presents a solo exhibition featuring art you can explore and experience through feelings of touch and heartfelt connection.
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Multidisciplinary Artist, Cynthia Omotoyosi Ugwudike presents a solo exhibition, running from April 26 - May 11, at The Ark by Anny Roberts, entitled “In the Eyes of my Lover”. Featuring a passionate array of textile art designs to offer a feel of returning home to oneself as we acknowledge the ongoing need to seek housing in other people’s hearts through external validation and romantic love. The exhibition is open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. on the days it is running.
On the 28th of April 2024, Cynthia Omotoyosi Ugwudike made her first punch needle art piece, marking the starting point for her work with textiles. Subconsciously, this exhibition marks the one-year anniversary of that beginning, bringing together a year’s worth of experiments and explorations in textile.
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In the curatorial statement Chisom Peter Job writes, “Through punch needling, rug tufting, and needle felting, Cynthia Omotoyosi Ugwudike examines the concept of romantic love through the lens of the self, highlighting the interconnectedness between self-love and self-reflection and the role it plays in providing a multifaceted view of love.” The art is explained as an enforcement of love from within implying that the eyes of your lover is standing in front of a mirror and watching oneself first and foremost before getting to be seen by others— an invitation to see and affirm oneself before seeking recognition from others.
In the Eyes of my Lover contemplates the dissonance between the ideals of love we are taught to aspire to and the often fragmented reality of selfhood and intimacy. Love, as presented in society, is rarely in perfect harmony with personal experience; it is shaped by longing, societal pressures, and internal contradictions. Cynthia’s work awakens vulnerability, allowing emotions like hope, desire and self-reckoning to coexist within each piece. The pieces present abstract ideas in pieces like “Pouring” or day-to-day activities like “Plantain and Egg” where familiar events like sharing a meal with one's pet resolve into deeper resonance, using visual and tactile tensions to suggest that true love, especially self-love, emerges not from perfection, but from the acceptance of our fragmented, evolving selves.
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Visitors who have come from every walk of life and different states within Nigeria engage with each piece not just visually, but emotionally, reflecting on their own journeys toward self-recognition and love. Fellow artists describe Cynthia’s work as comforting and encouraging, offering a quiet resistance to capitalism’s pressures by affirming the value of inner worlds. Her pieces have challenged viewers to look inward and brew a love never-ending for themselves.
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