Nigeria Now: Emerging Trends of Contemporary Art in Nigeria 

Art Africa Miami, Miami Florida 

December 4-9, 2012 

 

 

As curator of the exhibition Nigeria Now: Emerging Trends of Contemporary Art in Nigeria, I organized the exhibition with Art Africa Miami, a satellite fair of Art Basel Miami Beach 2012, on behalf of the African Artists' Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria. 

 

Contemporary art in Nigeria is at the cusp of an explosion. Over the last two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in artistic practices in the country and in the embrace of new modes of expression. A new generation of emerging artists adopt a conceptual framework and the tools to use art as a vehicle for cultural expression and social change. Gone are the compartmentalized restrictions of medium specificity and a strict embrace of a mastery of technical skill. Contemporary artists in Nigeria today adopt a hybrid discipline of artistic forms, one where the conceptual threads of their message are articulated, debated, and made paramount.

 

Nigeria Now includes the work of eleven Nigerian artists who collectively represent the dominant movements in contemporary art in Nigeria today. These artists examine the social and political landscape of Nigeria and of the African continent. They question the role of the African artist in a global environment. They look to the influences of technology and the digital revolution and its impact on collective world view. Moreover, they look to the history of art in Africa and its preconceptions, and they reflect on the tension between traditional African art practices and values and their relevance in contemporary society. They look to the past and to the cultural history of Nigeria; they look at the present and current social ills. They envision a different future and actively take part in its construction. With the fast pace of change occurring in Nigeria today, including the expansion of urban population centers and an explosion of development and technology that is dissolving barriers and leading to new types of interactions, Nigeria Now reflects on the political, social, economic, environmental, and personal implications of our actions in Nigeria today.

 

Participating Artists: 

Joseph Eze, Ike Francis, Taiye Idahor, Obinna Makata, Chike Obeagu, Demola Ogunajo, Richardson Ovbiebo, Alafuro Sikoki, Stephen Arueze Ubaka, Bob-Nosa Uwagboe, Uche Uzorka

 

Joseph Eze is a mixed media artist who incorporates painting, sculpture, and installation techniques. Eze graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2001 with a Second Class Upper Degree in Fine and Applied Art and a concentration in painting. Eze’s work in Nigeria Now incorporates large scale painting with textual fragments in a conceptual approach that examines the boundaries between traditional and contemporary Nigerian culture. Eze has taken part in over ten exhibitions to date and three solo exhibitions, including Inside of Me (Castedown Gallery, Lagos, 2002), What They Did Not Teach Me in Art School (Tribes Art Gallery, Lagos, 2009), and Hyphen (Nike Art Gallery, Lagos, 2011). International exhibitions include the Independence Exhibition (Gallerie Benedicte, Vienna, 2012) and Art Monaco (2012). Eze was also a finalist for the 2012 National Art Competition in Nigeria. Eze lives and works in Lagos.

 

Ike Francis is a mixed media artist who works in varied practices using sculpture, installation, and found objects. Born in Lagos in 1970, Ike Francis graduated in sculpture from the University of Port Harcourt in 1995 and earned an MFA in painting in 2001 from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Francis examines the metaphor of cities and its people through used electronic parts, circuit boards, and computer scraps. He has participated in many exhibitions and workshops both in Nigeria and internationally, including DAK’ART (Dakar), Columbus Centre (Toronto), and the Triangle Art Centre (New York). He has facilitated artists workshops at the Harmattan Workshop and the “Art is Everywhere” workshop in Enugu, Abuja, and Zaria, and the National Art Competition in Lagos. Francis teaches mixed media, painting, and drawing at the University of Port Harcourt. 

 

Taiye Idahor is a mixed media and installation artist. Idahor graduated from the Yaba College of Technology in 2007 with a concentration in sculpture. Idahor is inspired by everyday life and the ever changing culture of her space; hence her work challenges and questions the reason for these changes. In using waste objects in her work, she mockingly points a finger directly at the materialistic culture that has eaten deep into the world and now defines the character of her city and home Idahor was a finalist in the National Art Competition in 2011. Idahor lives and works in Lagos.

 

Chike Obeagu is a mixed media artist who uses techniques of photo-collage and painting to comment on the social and political environment in Nigeria today. Obeagu obtained his BA and MFA degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Obeagu is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of FABA (For Artists By Artists) Studios, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting emerging talent in Nigeria. He has won numerous grants and awards and has participated in exhibitions, residencies, and workshops in Nigeria, Senegal, Italy, South Africa, USA, UK, and China. Obeagu won First Place in the National Art Competition in 2011 for his collaboration with artist Uche Uzorka. He is an instructor with the Art is Everywhere Project and presently teaches visual and creative arts at the Federal University Lafia, Nasarawa State. Obeagu lives and works in Abuja.

 

Richardson Ovbiebo is a sculptor and installation artist whose work reflects the tension between the public and private in Nigerian society, incorporating such diverse elements as doors, locks, wheels, mirrors, shoes, and mannequins. Ovbiebo’s work concentrates on the social dynamics or constructs that emerge from his environment and the roles individuals play as mirrors of their environment. He describes his practice as an investigation into how people’s actions and inactions seem to be a result of a systemic construct. Ovbiebo graduated from the Yaba College of Technology with a major in sculpture. Ovbiebo won the Fashion Designer’s Association of Nigeria Award for Best Design Inspired by Fashion, and he was nominated for Nigeria’s Future Award in 2010. Ovbiebo lives and works in Lagos.

 

Demola Ogunajo was born in 1973 in Ibadan, Nigeria. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University in 1994 with a degree in Fine Arts. Ogunajo’s practice incorporates painting techniques, referencing a pop- art aesthetic and a graphic design sensibility. Ogunajo works and lives in Lagos.

 

Obinna Makata uses fabric as a metaphor for culturel identity and evolving social paradigms. His works create narrative associations that deal with quotidian issues in contemporary Nigerian society, including visa queues, modern relationships, and crowded urban environments. Makata graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2007, where he majored in sculpture. Makata is also the Founder and Creative Director of Mma-Nka Studio. Makata has participated actively in over fifteen group shows since 2003. His first solo exhibition, entitled Metahistories, opened at the African Artists’ Foundation in September 2012. 

 

Alafuro Sikoki-Coleman is an artist and an industrial designer whose works explore the dynamics between the object, user, and the environment. Sikoki-Coleman graduated from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, in 2006 with a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Authoring and Design from Coventry University, UK (2003). Sikoki-Coleman won Second Prize at the 2012 National Art Competition for her project entitled Cog, which explores television consumption and media saturation in Nigeria today. Sikoki-Coleman lives and works in Bayelsa and Lagos States.

 

Bob-Nosa Uwagboe is a painter whose work examines the Nigerian social condition. Most recently, Uwagboe has begun to incorporate mixed media practices into his work, including materials such as human hair. Uwagboe investigates the dynamics of government corruption and individual experience in Nigeria, stating: “I use my art as a social and defensive weapon to fight bad leadership.” Uwagbo graduated from the Federal Polytechnic Auichi in Edo State in 2004 with a speciality in painting. Uwagbo lives and works in Lagos.

 

Stephen Arueze Ubaka is a sculptor and mixed media artist who approaches discarded industrial parts as a metaphor for cultural rejuvenation. In his Hope series, Ubaka creates three-dimensional sculptural works out of spoons, hinges, springs, bolts, and electronic parts in the shape of a prototype motorcycle. Ubaka studied Fine and Applied Arts at the Federal collage of Education (Akoko, Lagos), where he obtained a Nigerian Certificate of Education in Textile Design and Sculpture. He also studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (Yabatech Campus) for his B. Sc. Ed in Painting. Ubaka lives and works in Lagos.

 

Uche Uzorka trained in Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, majoring in painting. Uzorka won First Place with Chike Obeagu in the National Art Competition in 2011. Uzorka is completing a year long residency at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos and had his first solo exhibition at the Goethe Institut in Lagos in October 2012. Throughout Uzorka’s prolific body of work that includes painting, collage, cutting and pasting, charcoal, and ink drawing, the viewer is at once confronted with a dense mass of visual clutter while at the same time directed by the textual fragments that animate boldly from the canvas. Appropriating the signs and symbols of Nigerian street culture, Uzorka encapsulates the psychological energy that defines the city of Lagos. Uzorka’s work suggests an unwillingness to conform to methods of civic control and an ambivalent attitude towards the urban environment.

 

 

Nigeria Now was organized by the African Artists' Foundation with major support provided by Lufthansa Cargo West Africa, GAC Logistics Nigeria Limited, Art Africa Miami, and The Urban Collective.

 

 

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