ARTFAR

AN EXHIBITION BY Gerald Isiguzo

MAY 2025

Opening night 16th May 6pm

Gerald Isiguzo, OP (MA Fine Art)

The acronym ARTFAR is the project-name for “Art’s Response To Faith And Reason”, and resides in the interplay between theology and the arts. Developed under the influence of my family upbringing in Nigeria, my Christian faith, and my passion for the arts, ARTFAR explores narratives that represent a journey of ‘faith and reason’, and does so in ways that straddle concepts that are both sacred and secular, theological and philosophical, historical and contemporary in context. 

To further contextualize this crucial sphere of relationships, my current practice proposes a three-fold analogy which I explore as ‘propositions of faith and reason’ based on the biblical accounts of creation, the Fall, and redemption, taking these as a starting point for exploring coherent, theological possibilities in contemporary art.

Influenced by the works of El Anatsui, my teacher and mentor who is considered to be a leading African contemporary artist, I playfully engage with “the used and dumped” of our physical and social environment – I grapple with its materiality through semiotic considerations and ‘kenotic’ mediations; I consider its theological possibilities beyond medium-specific boundaries – an approach which offers me the creative liberty to engage with the used and dumped as an overarching metaphor for exploring the social and spiritual conditions of our common humanity, a humanity that is “wounded but not destroyed” – a powerful theological metaphor for rethinking historical and contemporary perspectives along socio-economic, religious, and political thresholds.

About the Artist 

Gerald Isiguzo, OP is a Nigerian Dominican artist with a background in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (2006). After his philosophical and theological formation and ordination to the Catholic priesthood in 2018, Gerald has continued to be committed to the pursuit of the utmost excellence in rational enquiry through his continuing artistic practice, preaching through ‘theology and the arts’ and his expansive and collaborative community-based projects. 

Contact Gerald artmaster2022@gmial.com or @geralds_art_exnihilo.