Originality is a myth I no longer chase. Everything I create is a response to life as it unfolds around and within me. My work rises from lived realities, from assumptions, from fragments of memory that surface unrestrained. Often, my unconscious and subconscious do the choosing before I am even aware. They guide my hands, my gestures, my mark-making. Each piece is shaped by more than the present- it carries the sediments of what has been and the longing for what might come.

Katherine Howell Weingart '61 Civic Innovation Pavillion The time preparing for the relocation of my studio from the Torpedo Factory Art Center back to Lagos has distracted me from sharing the beautiful memories of an epic moment in my stay in the United States of America. Through the purchase and donation of 2 of my paintings by Steve Howell, I was connected to this outpost university that seems so much like the America of many migrants’ dreams. The purchase led to an invita

Here’s the invite to my farewell party, Designed by Courtney Kolker The Torpedo Factory Artists Association is throwing a party to bid...

When I think of community and the celebration that is life, I think of my village, Oguta. When I think of sinuous lines, I

Someone spoke about how about 12,000 ships brought slaves to America. On this basis, I started painting this piece to commemorate the journeys, the blood and sweat, the rough seas, and masts bellowing in the Atlantic winds. I completed the painting yesterday.

Get the catalog of my recent paintings here.

Let me tell you about the country called Nowhere. It is the land of kings and queens, princes and princesses- I am one of them. A long time ago, our ancestral home was the land of Idu n’Oba, the great queen mother and king. There were disputes about allegiance to these Oyibo who spoke through their noses, who came bringing all these strange gifts that doubled one’s appearance, this magical pipe that blew thunder and death when pointed in one’s direction, and thus sweet liquid

Trade by barter has been on my mind since I studied the lives of artists. In exchange for their artworks, they were given what they needed at the moment- be it money, food, art materials, a home, etc. The best gift you can get from me is my artwork, because it has the possibility of growing in value. Working as an artist for 28 years, I know that my artwork has been my currency in many ways. I will highlight 2 moments when I exchanged my paintings for things. Jeff, owner of

When the art department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was founded in 1961, one of its two pioneer teachers was Akinola Lasekan (1916-1974), an established painter who was perhaps better known as the nationalist cartoonist, Lash, whose cartoons appeared for some two decades in the West African Pilot (a newspaper publication). Why none of the first three sets of art graduates (1965, 1966, 1967) specialized in painting despite the presence of Lasekan, and later, in 1962/

I have participated in 2 group exhibitions and my first solo exhibition here in the US! To add to the laurels, the Grinnell College Museum o

In transit himself, Chukwudinma watches people move, individually and en masse, willingly and forced, and he divines their spaces and places

Amy and her curator, Jordan, chose the title for the exhibition. That title became a magnet, drawing people to the exhibition. Some visitors

Observing new cultures, and sharing my own culture is the intent in my work. The 2-dimensional canvas becomes a performative space for danci

I was to speak as an expert adviser in the arts. I will take that, seeing that I have worked as an artist for 29 years! I spoke after

PANGEA, an exhibition that forms a metaphorical supercontinent of artistic voices spanning four major continents: Africa, Europe, North Amer

You are invited to an upcoming group exhibition in New York.

Art is my real job.  My profession. I am a resident artist at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The Art Center requires artists to rejury

She spent time with me in my studio, looking at the scattered art space for clues to my creative process. She chose a painting that fit the

Bright colors bouncing off the canvas, varying-sized brushstrokes and shapes, images meant to draw you into stories of migration, space and

Working at the Torpedo Factory Art Center offers artists the possibility of sharing- artists mixing with throngs of tourists and art lovers