Former Dean, School of Vocational Education, College of Education, Warri, Delta State, and founder, Oyoma Visual Art Studio and Gallery, Prof. Salubi Onakufe, is a consummate fine artist and art teacher. Onakufe, who was Acting Provost, College of Education, Warri, and faculty member, African American University, Benin Republic, spoke with Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME on why he closed two of his galleries, his love for prints and miniature works, the focus of his artworks and other issues in the creative industry
House 30, Jumujaiye Street, Charlesco Warehouse Road, Off Nigerian Port Authority Expressway, Warri is unlike other buildings in the neighbourhood. A spacious pave-locked compound hemmed by fruit trees such as sour sop, avocado pear, lime, and vegetables like bitter leaf. It is a home built around abundance of greenery as therapy. This unique setting also provides a lead to what House 30 has for every guest, especially art enthusiasts.
Welcome to the home, studio and gallery of former art teacher at the College of Education, Warri Prof. Salubi Onakufe, a mecca of a sort for art students, artists, art collectors and enthusiasts. It also houses the Oyoma Visual Art Studio and Gallery, where he spends most of his time drawing, painting or preparing patterns for printmaking. Even at retirement, Onakufe, 71, wakes up at 5am every day and his studio is his first port of call. He is not a fan of extra curricula activities. Yet, he goes to bed late and barely sleeps five hours. Trained at the Auchi Polytechnic and the University of Missouri, USA, he taught at the Faculty of Vocational Studies, College of Education, Warri, where he retired.
Onakufe lived art to the fullest during and after his active teaching days at the College of Education Warri. Unlike many of his peers in the academics, he is as active in studio as in classroom. He literarily shared his time and resources equally between teaching and studio practice. Little wonder his collection is uncountable and it spanned decades of continuous production. There are different sizes and shapes of artworks—stone/wood sculptures, paintings, prints, kept in every available space in the main studio. Even the walls of the stair case of the house are not spared as they hang some special paintings. Every room is a mini gallery of sort. He successfully stocked two galleries in Warri and Benin in Edo state with his artworks to service the emerging art markets in the two cities while in active service as an art teacher.
On what forms the content of his art, Prof Onakufe said: “In all my years as an artist, I dared where many artists feared to thread. I used my artworks to interrogate issues in the society not minding whose ox is gored. I combine academic with studio practice to execute my works, especially as social commentary. In life, am not always in a hurry in whatever I do. I believe in long term planning. My art collection is being documented but we have lost count of the numbers. The works are however classified by periods; formative/Auchi era; Missouri /Masters period till date, which are Niger Delta forest form (in paper and canvas; masquerade and cultural life of the people, Warri crisis—a huge collection of paintings and prints. There is also the abstract expressionism series—impunity versus hope, peace, love and beauty series. Currently, I am working on found objects of wood of multiple colours and shapes.”
He recalled that driven by the desire to meet the increasing demands for his art, he decided to open two art galleries in Warri and Benin in the mid-2000s, which became the thriving art outlets in the two cities then. But, the collections at the two galleries are now merged to form the core of Oyoma Visual Art Studio and Gallery’s collection in his current location in House 30.
“I closed the two galleries after completing my Warri facility, where most of my works are warehoused. The Benin gallery was one of the thriving art outlets then. It was located on Paul Omorodion Street, BDPA Estate, opposite University of Benin campus in Ugbowo. It was operational from 2009 till 2013. Shuttling Benin to Warri to meet customers’ needs was tasking and highly risky for the manager. Often time, some customers would require seeing the artist physically and as at then I was still very active in teaching at the College. All this informed why I had to merge the two galleries’ collection into one in my residence,” he said of his art marketing venture.
Continuing, he said: “Majority of my works focuses on the happenings around the Niger Delta region, particularly the socio-political crises in the region. There are works of 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and till now that address different issues that affect the region. One unique piece in my collection is an old bicycle bought by a former NYSC Corp member Mr. Segun Odugbose, an architect, who had his service year with my gallery in Benin City. He left the bicycle behind after the service year in 2011. It has become part of my collection and interestingly it is becoming an artifact.”
Presently, his love for miniatures and prints knows no bound. He said that small size paintings and prints are the in-thing these days because of carriage and space constraint for hanging. He explained that many art collectors and buyers feel at ease picking or buying such medium size or miniatures at auctions or exhibitions, adding that even the famous Mona Lisa painting is not a large size work, yet it is worth a fortune in the global art market.
All the while, documentation and preservation of his growing collection were never a challenge because his son, Dr. Afuevu Onakufe, has been part and parcel of the development of his gallery, studio and collection for decades.
“My son Dr. Afuevu Onakufe worked with me for many years and he was taking care of my collections. Consequent upon that, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Art Management by the School of Business Management, London for managing my collections for many years. Interestingly, he is also a painter and print maker,” he added.
Though spent most of his teaching career in Warri, he finds the oil rich city as a no art market place. According to him, art market in Warri is non-existent. “Warri is not a strong hub for art market. But, when Shell Petroleum Company was in Warri, there were efforts to grow the art market. Since they left Warri, the emerging art business has dipped. There is no art market anywhere in Nigeria like Lagos. Unfortunately, most Nigerians are yet to cultivate the culture of appreciating and collecting art as investment,” he said.
In spite of this seeming setback, Oyoma Visual Art Studio and Gallery remained a reference point among arts students and enthusiasts in the state, as they regularly visit the facility in droves. Little wonder his plans to establish a full-fledged arts research centre in the nearest future. He disclosed that the centre will be open to ‘artists and researchers seeking to interrogate my works and practice; to transform his present main studio into Salubi Onakufe Museum of Contemporary Art.’
He urged artists to resist the pressure of selling out all their collection because of demands from collectors or buyers. Keeping reserve, he noted, is a critical way of telling their journey as practicing artists. “Artist must show restraint and be conservative when selling their works of art,” he added.
