YOU ARE INVITED !!! “Mental Sanity” Lifestyle and Experiences, a Solo Art Exhibition showcasing the works by global artist Yusuf Seidu Okus opening on Saturday 30th of March till 6th of April at Cartoon Art Gallery in Dubai from 7:00pm onwards. Yusuf is an Experimental Visual Artist working in the Occupational Therapy Unit of the Federal Neuron - Psychiatric Hospital, Auchi Edo State, Nigeria. Mental Sanity is the artist's journey in lifestyle experiences. The exhibition welcomes art lovers to engage and experience the narrative of the artist’s story telling through his canvas. He have been asked a couple of times and repeatedly by people through interactions in the line of duty, what is an artist doing in a hospital? Strangely this was my stance till 2005 when he was appointed as an Assistant Art Production Officer, then rose through the ranks to become a Principal Art Product Officer. Witnessing and interacting with patients who suffers a form of mental illness ranging from Anxiety, Depression, Attention Deficit, Hyperactivity in children, Autism, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bipolar disorder have shaped her perception, awoken my empathy and convinced me to channel my creative abilities to resolving the various abnormal character traits exhibited by these patients and rehabilitating the suffers. The displayed artworks are creative attributes exhibited by patients which only require realignment to be restored to normalcy, giving them a sense of well being, self esteem and rebuilding their cognition through an appropriate artistic and creative measure of engaging patients to express their inner processes and mental conflicts through drawing, painting, or a combination of both. His artistic indoctrination constitutes a form of diversionary mechanism and recovery tactics which yields therapeutic effects thereby reinstating their psychological balance. There is no better way for me as a Visual artist to highlight perfectly the multiple faces of mental issues which i have observed than to experiment it pictures, forms, colors and materials in a bid to present them to the audience in a manner that arouse discuss, invite a cross fertilization of ideas and subject mental illness to further analysis to stimulate an holistic approach to curbing it. These paintings and other mixed media works he is showcasing first and foremost as to appeal to the aesthetic sensibility of audience, then arouse a curiosity which stretch their mind and imagination to probe the layers that constitute or inspire each piece. Opening of the Show: Saturday 30th of March 2019 Opening Time: 7:00pm until 9:00pm Timing fro 31st till 6th - 12:00pm till 8:00pm Exhibition dates: 30th of March till 6th of April (Friday 5th April 2019 Holiday) Venue: Cartoon Art Gallery, Al Quoz, Behind Dynatrade, Next to Zabeel Studio, Dubai ,UAE The Event is open to public and FREE to enter Contact: 0509398211(Watsapp) /0559018388(Mobile) PR: art4you.artgallery@gmail.com ; cartoonartgallery@gmail.com
