‘A Journey of Strength and Resilience’ is a solo exhibition by Almat Adams, the exhibition is a collection of paintings that focuses on a ‘protagonist whose life took an unexpected turn as she became pregnant in her teenage years, a predicament that rendered her neglected and alone. However, she discovered solace and companionship within the walls of ‘a baby factory’ disguised as a maternity home.

Capturing these detailed selected scenes, figuratively in oil medium projects Almat’s draftsmanship and mastery in composition, the use of the medium, and most importantly, her creativity.

One of the works titled ‘Unintended Consequences’ described the scenario where the news of her predicament was delivered to her father and his response was banishment from her home. The painting is such that leaves its audience in awe. The alignment in composition, the emotions each figure expresses, the uniformity in these expressions, the interplay of light and shadows, imagine glaring at Leonardo Da Vinci’s work only with brown skin figures in Northern Nigeria’s relatable attire, it is simply breathtaking!

Another captivating one is ‘Revelation’. Revelation is the composition of the ‘Protagonist’ and her fellow new young mothers discovering ‘the baby factory’ hidden agenda. It will be safe and acceptable to use literature terminologies to describe this painting because the visualization of shapes and colours turns into words as you pay attention. ‘The lady in a green scarf and the lady in red scarf clearly could hear the discussion about how their babies are to be sold first-hand as they were in shock, stomach twist, goosebumps maybe, rooted to their spots, as they could no longer hear or feel the attention demanded by the other lady in blue blouse, while the yellow scarf lady is in total confusion, slightly unbothered as she hasn’t been hit with the heartbreaking news’.