The Shape of Education: Influence and Presence.

The Crown is Near, Wherever You are (Citizens of Nowhere) 59 x 73 inches, oil, spray paint on canvas, 08/2025

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

When I think of sinuous lines, I remember Chike Aniakor;

When I think of the interconnected nature of all the arts and social sciences, I think of Obiora Udechukwu; when I consider positive and negative spaces, El Anatsui comes to mind;

When I wax lyrical about art and its exalted position in the universe, it is Ola Oloidi;

When I touch charcoal, I see Chijioke Onuora;

Of contexts and the power of the narrative, I think of Chika Okeke-Agulu;

When I think of mixed media and disjointed bodies, I think of Marcia Kure;

When I think of humanity and the forces at work around the body, I think of Willem De Kooning;

When defining space and how we show up, I think of the wood carvers and sculptors of precolonial Africa; when I think of the power of the image and its presence, I think of Picasso.

There are the lines of Uche Okeke, Suzanne Wenger’s forests, the colors of Gani Odutokun,

Ibrahim El Salahi’s figures, Paul Klee’s little big worlds, and Olu Oguibe’s wit…

Somewhere around hover the spirits of Antoni Gaudí and Basquiat.