Art Dealer Street
An extended 2026 studio interview examines the emotional origins of the art, its imagery, and the artist’s account of illness, restoration, and painting.
Read the interview ↗The Atelier / A Selected Work
Ascension.
01 The Work
Ascension · Original Painting
02 Medium
Oil on Canvas
03 Dimensions
28 × 22 inches
04 Asking Price
$8,000.00 USD
The experience
The Weight
of Becoming Free.
A winged man lifts his face as his arms extend into a darkened world. A length of golden chain hangs from one hand. Behind him, a luminous woman appears with lowered eyes, neither fully earthly nor entirely absent.
Ascension takes place at the threshold between what can be endured and what might finally be released. The body still carries the gravity of suffering; the wings give visible form to the desire to rise beyond it.
The chain is essential. It has not vanished in the moment of ascent. Its remaining links insist that liberation does not undo what preceded it. The woman above may be read as memory, witness, love, or an interior source of strength. The painting deliberately leaves that relationship open.
The work itself
Light Against
the Weight of Shadow.
From a distance, the open body and spreading wings form an unmistakable gesture of release. Up close, their seeming radiance resolves into ridges of ochre, copper, cream, blue-grey, and dark crimson.
The pale torso is modeled with quieter, measured transitions; its anatomy anchors the image in physical experience. Around it, the wings and the surrounding atmosphere break into thick, directional strokes, as though light itself were struggling through shadow.
The chain introduces an opposite rhythm: hard, individually described links falling vertically against the outward movement of the arms. Above, the woman’s softer features temper the force of the gesture. The painting’s tension lives in these differences of weight, touch, and illumination.
I / From a Distance
The PresenceOpen arms and upward wings confront the remaining chain.
II / Close to the Canvas
The SurfaceHeavy impasto gives both shadow and radiance their substance.
Further Studies / The Original Painted Surface
In the artist's words
“I think of light as permission
and shadow as truth.”
Uchenna Obinabo-Mabazza · Art Dealer Street, Inside the Studio
The artist and the atelier
Art from a
Lived Place.
Uchenna Obinabo-Mabazza explores the emotional life beneath outward appearances: fear held beside resolve, beauty touched by grief, and hope sustained without certainty.
In the aftermath of cancer treatment, darkness initially dominated the imagery. Over time, the artist began noticing the world differently: flowers, sunlight, ordinary beauty, and moments of unexpected tenderness. Those discoveries live alongside the harder truths of suffering and recovery.
Each work begins with an emotion and is revised until its image carries that feeling with conviction. The painting must stand independently, both as an artwork and as a presence in a collector’s home.
From Vision to Canvas
The artist develops original compositions using contemporary image-making and drawing tools. Selected compositions are then realized in oil on canvas by professional studio painters under his artistic direction. This collaborative studio practice remains centered on the artist’s originating vision, from the first composition to the final painted surface.
Exhibitions & perspectives
A Growing
Conversation.
Independent editorial attention and gallery presentations place the work in dialogue with collectors, curators, and the wider art community.
SINGULART
Artist portfolio with work listed on the platform, alongside indicators for gallery favorites and inclusion in gallery curations.
Explore the portfolio ↗Clio Art Fair
Presentation at the 2025 New York edition and a published reflection on the encounter with an international audience.
Read the feature ↗Boston presentations
Resilience in Light (2025) and Healing Art at Winthrop Boston (2026) form part of the artist’s developing exhibition record.
Mabazza Foundation / Collector Services
Purchase
This Artwork.
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