STEVENSON is pleased to present a selection of new paintings by Serge Alain Nitegeka – his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Combining geometric and fluid forms, Nitegeka continues his exploration of place, material possession and the tensions between free and restricted movement. He writes: Refugees and asylum seekers occupy shifting spaces. They change spaces and in turn spaces change them. This exchange occurs in fluid movements; bodies and objects dance in space, their movements akin to a primal and involuntary choreography. A staged mess that is being in this world. In his new works on wood, Nitegeka focuses on the idiosyncrasies of space. His figures, seen grappling with obstacles and loads, are depicted in segmented enclaves to better examine the relationship between the place of departure and the site of arrival. He continues: I speak about not just the movement of people, but also the space itself, how it has been shifted and arranged. The objects themselves are being moved around. You’re not sure where up or down is. Everything is disorienting. These paintings create that kind of space –thought-out, but not quite thought-out. Some of the curves are quarter-curves – like the articulated doors on house plans that shape movement from one space to another. In a way, like with those doorways, we’re talking about bridges connecting separate spaces, or linking spaces within spaces. We can talk about different things: we can talk about ideologies; we can talk about how two different ideas co-exist, and when they do it’s because something links them. For me, it’s the metaphor of the door. The idea of the door opening, the curvature, the arcs – that kind of repetition, close-open-close-open – these are some of the possibilities behind these paintings.

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