Prayer

Name: Prayer
Brand: Raknida
Price: 55.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Joshua Omoijiade

Painting of a bald man squatting with eyes closed, one hand on his chest and the other touching the ground, while three dark shadowy figures with raised hands stand behind him in grey-green smoke.

$55.00

A man squats in prayer, one hand drawing chalk on the ground, the other on his heart, as shadow figures rise behind him. Joshua Omoijiade's painting is about how creating art, or dreaming, keeps the demons away. An African spiritual artwork for a study, bedroom or gallery wall.

Prayer is a Studio Edition: 20 museum-quality art prints in each size, each numbered in its white border. Every artwork comes with its Cultural Passport.

The Cultural Passport

Every order comes with the heritage documented.

Digital, emailed when your order ships: the work's story, the tradition it draws on and how it was made. 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm), ready to print and frame beside the work.

How it works →

A man squats low, one hand drawing chalk on the ground, the other pressed to his chest, as dark figures lean in. Joshua Omoijiade paints a posture of prayer found in many African traditional religions. For him, making keeps the demons away: “Being in light with no end to making and painting.” Read another way, the chalk calls the ancestors near. The two readings meet in the chalk line: it keeps the shadows out and lets the ancestors in. For anyone who creates, prays or dreams to stay steady, the picture will feel familiar.

The culture · African traditional religion. White chalk is sacred in southern Nigeria: nzu to the Igbo, orhue to the Edo, efun to the Yoruba. Elders pray by drawing its lines on the ground.

Motifs in this work

Chalk on the ground: prayer drawn on the earth

Hand on the heart: the inward turn of prayer

Three shadow figures: the demons that making keeps at bay

Edition: Edition of 20 in each size · 20 across all sizes. Further runs possible once a size sells out, each tagged (Run 2). Edition numbers count the works sold through Raknida; the artist may also sell their own editions of this work.
Numbering: Number, title and artist printed in the white border.
Printing: Museum-quality giclée with archival pigment inks on museum-grade cotton fine art paper.
Year: 2021
Includes: Your numbered artwork and its Cultural Passport.

Size	Sheet	Image	Museum-Quality Print only	Framed	Available
S	8 × 12 in	6½ × 10¼ in	$55	+$65	19

The artist

Joshua Omoijiade

Edo / Benin · Nigeria · 3 works on Raknida

Joshua Omoijiade, who works as Josheromon, is a Nigerian painter, concept artist, writer and architect whose work spans nearly two decades and several mediums. Self-taught in art after formal training in architecture and design, he paints in a way he calls "tradigital". He uses painterly digital work to convey complex, melancholic emotions and characters. His themes include liminality, sadness, rage and gluttony, the dark undertones of the mind that rarely get the room to be seen. He has shown in digital exhibitions in several countries and also publishes fiction and non-fiction.

View full profile →All 3 works →