TO celebrate Professor Bruce Onobrakpeya and mark 60 years since his first exhibition in 1959, SMO Arts will present an exhibition of thirty six exceptional prints which span the years of his rich and prolific career.
Professor Bruce Onobrapkeya is an internationally celebrated experimental artist and master printmaker, who have created paintings, sculptures, low relief foils, prints and large installation works which celebrate Nigeria’s rich cultures and traditions and chronicled the nation’s post-colonial history. He has mentored generations of artists and is also celebrating the 21st year of his influential bi-annual Harmattan Workshop series which has trained and inspired artists from across Africa, Europe, America and India.
In 2017 Prof. Onobrakpeya received the Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) for his immense contributions to arts and culture which include being a founding member of the Zaria Arts Society, a group of visionary students who started a cultural revolution that birthed Nigerian contemporary art, including Uche Okeke, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko, Oseloka Osadebe, Simon Okeke and others.
Onobrakpeya’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., The Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos to name a few. He received the UNESCO’s Living Human Treasures Award in 2006. And the Pope John Paul II award for painting the life of Saint Paul, the Fellowship of Asele Institute award, the Sadam Hussein award, the Solidra Circle award, and Fulbright Exchange Scholar award. In 2010 became the second winner of Nigeria’s prestigious Nigerian Creativity Award by the Federal Government of Nigeria; its first winner was Chinua Achebe.
The ENI! You Can Always See Where the Elephant Has Passed By! exhibition is now open for public viewing at the Wheatbaker until July 20th, 2019.
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