Offoedu-Okeke refreshes Homeland memories

After spending a decade writing and publishing articles and a book on Nigerian art from pre-colonial times to the present, Offoedu-Okeke now has on stage, 25 acrylic on canvas paintings in what he calls Homeland Memories.“Homeland Memories is a spectacular body of recent works, which showcases Offoedu-Okeke’s incredible artistry of different techniques ranging from his […]

After spending a decade writing and publishing articles and a book on Nigerian art from pre-colonial times to the present, Offoedu-Okeke now has on stage, 25 acrylic on canvas paintings in what he calls Homeland Memories.
“Homeland Memories is a spectacular body of recent works, which showcases Offoedu-Okeke’s incredible artistry of different techniques ranging from his well-known rectilinear panels with verticals lines, looking like visual totems, to his powerful ‘cranioglyph’ face series, to his intricate grid-like patterned ‘tapestroid’ paintings and including a few internationally celebrated  headload’ paintings,” Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago, the curator said.
In all his works, Offoedu-Okeke’s use of colour and geometric alignment and balance shows an artist who has used his training in architecture and art history to create a new, highly textured and stylistic visual language that has clear roots in African traditional forms but also offers art enthusiast a fresh perspective on contemporary Nigeria expression.
“In Homeland memories, we encounter an artist whose subjects and interpretations are both steeped in local tradition while tapping into global themes; his works are infused with rich symbols which reflect local African roots and are grounded in Igbo cosmology and identity.
While his face series, influenced by classic mask like profiles, are unmistakably mordernist in their bold, colourful, wide-eyed gaze and natural afro-centric styled heads and hairdos,” the curator added.
A graduate of architecture at the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus in 1992, Offoedu-Okeke said he has since become a full time studio artist. He has taken part in over 20 international group shows including exhibitions in Britain, Greece, Spain, Germany and Sweden.
He has also had numerous solo exhibitions since 1997, with his last solo show in London in 2010.
“I am inspired by themes such as memories of histories and home, human resilience, ascendancy of the subaltern, thought-scapes as mechanisms of conflict resolution which address challenges and triumphs in human societies,” explains Offoedu-Okeke, who said he is really interested in creating his own unique lexicon of symbols or iconography.
The artists said through his works, he has chosen to be different from other contemporaries whom he described as engaging in “mad rush to please the gatekeepers of global art platforms.”
“When I say ‘I am Africa’, then my art becomes autobiographical in the way it is presented. This series of works touches on the human experience, our enveloping space, and the cosmos from which human imagination draws its inspiration and corresponding beliefs. This body of work is made up of works that reflect all my styles including Headload, Tapestroid, Caniography, Drizzles and Rectilinear Panellation.
Offoedu-Okeke’s works cut the attention of Prof. Frank Ugiomoh of the University of Port Harcourt who described the artistic works as a “re-modernisation of the past in contemporary identities.”
“We encounter in the hands of Offoedu-Okeke a re-modernisation of the past in contemporary identities. He presents a renascent artistic awareness in his works (which) reminds us of who we are within connectivity that encompass the future and the past that is vestigial to who we are today,” the Professor said.
“After a four year hiatus from the Nigerian exhibition circuit, we are delighted to host Homeland memories in which Onyema Offoedu-Okeke presents a powerful fresh body of works steeped in ancient symbolism,” said exhibition curator, Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago.
The Homeland Memories exhibition opened June 23 and it will be there till August 30, 2014. It is sponsored by international art sponsor, Ruinart.