Artexpo Dallas is happening September 16-18, 2022 at the Dallas Market Center. Here at Art Business News, we will be showcasing this year’s Spotlight Artists. The Spotlight Artists are handpicked by Redwood’s curated group of art industry experts.

Urevbu is a contemporary gallery owner, painter, and published writer. While the Urevbu Contemporary Gallery in Memphis’ South Main Arts District showcases a dynamic collection of artists from Africa and the African diaspora, their Artexpo Dallas booth will focus on Ephraim Urevbu’s work.

Art served as a bridge from his past in Nigeria to his present in Memphis – the poverty and seemingly impossible cultural and familial barriers to a career in art, the hardened realities of Black life in America, the challenges of racism, and the private battle against cancer – gifting him with a unique and compassionate voice.

Urevbu is best known for his large-scale abstract expressionist paintings distinguished by his presentation of bold acrylics and heavy pallet knife technique. He is currently busy in his studio working on a new body of work that explores important social and political themes such as morality, truth, race, equal rights and social justice, largely within the context of his personal experiences and American history.

He will be showcasing his Naked Truth Project at Artexpo Dallas this year. “The Naked Truth Project started with a conversation that lead to a meeting, that inspired a dialogue. Our generation has been exposed to atrocities of war, racial strife, economic inequity. We have also witnessed movements, legislation, court rulings and civil expression that focus our attention on a world we live in and what we want it to be. The result is the naked truth project.”

The paintings presented in the exhibition for The Naked Truth, were never intended to comfort and soothe the viewer, it is the intention of these paintings to “grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to rearrange your sense of reality.”

“In their creation, each painting seemed to take on a life of its own, transforming me as both artist and as observer of the long history and current events surrounding justice and equality. Rearranging my own sense of reality.”

Ephraim Urevbu, Urevbu Collection will be exhibiting at Artexpo Dallas September 16-18 at Booth 116. Tickets are available here.