Artists of Nigeria

An insightful overview of modern and contemporary Nigerian art from 1900 to the present through the works of over one hundred artists. 

Artists of Nigeria analyzes the influence of different art systems (museums, cultural institutions, art fairs, galleries, the internet) and cultures on the development of modern and contemporary Nigerian art in the past 100 years. Organized chronologically, and including biographical notes on the artists and lavish color illustrations, this unprecedented book charts the development of modern Nigerian art, and analyzes the works of significant Nigerian artists and art movements within the country and beyond. This comprehensive overview demonstrates the variety and vitality of Nigerian artists and confers on them a visibility they are often denied in global publications.

Among the artists featured are Olowere, whose work is in the collections of the British Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution; Chike Aniakor, who has a PhD from Indiana University; and Uche Okeke, whose work has been shown at the Sherman Gallery at Boston University.

Onyema Offoedu-Okeke is an artist and art historian whose work documents contemporary art in Nigeria and Africa. He has contributed essays to several art catalogues and his work has been shown in several art exhibitions, including Africa Passage: Six Artists from Nigeria at the Air Gallery, London, in 2003, which he curated. He represented Nigeria at the Artiade: Olympics of Art in Athens Olympic Games in 2004 and also in the Winsor & Newton sponsored art competition and exhibition titled Our World in the Year 2000, which toured the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the World Trade Centre in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Mals Galleries in London.