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This visually striking book is the first to explore the oeuvre of the celebrated multidisciplinary Nigerian artist.
From his birth in a rural village in Nigeria to his unorthodox ascent as a global art star Victor Ehikhamenor is garnering worldwide attention for his vibrant and incisive works that engage contemporary art, African history, and the postcolonial politics of global Black identity.
Drawing inspiration from his Nigerian roots, Ehikhamenor fuses tradition with contemporary expression through intricate patterns, symbolic motifs, and a rich visual language that weaves together the threads of mythology and cultural heritage. Brimming with boldly colored photographs and reproductions, this book focuses on Ehikhamenor's most recent work such as Daydream Esoterica, Saints and Sanctums, Still Standing, and A Biography of the Forgotten, investigating them through a transcultural analysis of mobility, circulation, networks, and connectivity. It explores seven key aspects of the artist's practice - rosaries, perforations, installations, paintings, drawings, collage, and sculpture - to show how he creates complex portraits of African peoples and global African spaces.
About the author
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Professor of History of Art and Architecture at the University of California Santa Barbara, is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts Research and the author of Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist and Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art. He is editor and co-author of Artists of Nigeria and founder/editor of Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture.
Summary
This visually striking book is the first to explore the oeuvre of the celebrated multidisciplinary Nigerian artist.
From his birth in a rural village in Nigeria to his unorthodox ascent as a global art star Victor Ehikhamenor is garnering worldwide attention for his vibrant and incisive works that engage contemporary art, African history, and the postcolonial politics of global Black identity.
Drawing inspiration from his Nigerian roots, Ehikhamenor fuses tradition with contemporary expression through intricate patterns, symbolic motifs, and a rich visual language that weaves together the threads of mythology and cultural heritage. Brimming with boldly colored photographs and reproductions, this book focuses on Ehikhamenor’s most recent work such as Daydream Esoterica, Saints and Sanctums, Still Standing, and A Biography of the Forgotten, investigating them through a transcultural analysis of mobility, circulation, networks, and connectivity. It explores seven key aspects of the artist’s practice – rosaries, perforations, installations, paintings, drawings, collage, and sculpture – to show how he creates complex portraits of African peoples and global African spaces.
