Obiora Udechukwu

Obiora Udechukwu (born 1946) is a Nigerian painter and poet.

Biography

Born in Onitsha in 1946 to parents from Agulu in Anambra State, Nigeria, he studied for one year at Ahmadu Bello University before serving in the Biafran War. He completed his bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1972, receiving his master's in 1977; both were from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is recognised as a member of the Nsukka group of artists.

Udechukwu frequently incorporates uli into his work, and in the 1970s he began to incorporate nsibidi into his work as well. Many of his paintings and prints depict ordinary people; his wartime service also inspired pieces which depicted the great suffering that he saw. Udechukwu's later works have gradually become more abstract.

Udechukwu is also active as a teacher; among his pupils at Nsukka were Tayo Adenaike and Olu Oguibe.

Obiora is the head of the Fine Arts Department at St. Lawrence University.

Poetry

• What the Madman Said, (1990)

Further reading

• Simon Ottenberg, Sources and themes in the art of Obiora Udechukwu, in African Arts, Summer 2002.

Sources

• Bio from the National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C
• Profile of the poet, Sentinel Poetry
• Marie-Helene Boisdur de Toffol and others, An Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century, Distributed Art Publishers/Editions Revue Noire; English edition (2002), ISBN 1-891024-38-8 - p. 249.