Contemporary Nigerian art recently re-emerged in far away United States of America to showcase the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods of artistic development.

The exhibition from Nigerian masters was dedicated to the memory of the late esteemed Nigerian artists such as Aina Onabolu (b.1882), H.I. Erhabor (b.1889), Justus Akeredolu (b.1915), Akinola Lasekan (b.1916), Ben Chuka Enwonwu (b.1921), Felix Idubor (b.1928) and others who have made special contributions to the understanding and appreciation of contemporary Nigerian art.

The Nigerian Masters Exhibition according to the curator, Prof. Okechukwu Odita was made possible by the efforts of American collectors who were initially fascinated by the quality of contemporary Nigerian art. These collectors had during their travels to and from Nigeria, made their collections over 40 years ago, some of which are now made available to Columbus Community through the KIACA Gallery.
The show, which was held between May 6 and June 25 also featured Nigerian masters like Rasheed Adelodun, Cornealius Aeiryin, Yinka Fabayo, E. Okechukwu Odita, Mike Omoighe and Bruce Onobrakpeya, all of whom are very prolific. The title Masters was primarily based on the quality of works in this exhibition.

The 18 pieces of the six artists cover a period of about 30 years (1976-2005), showing acrylic-pen-and-ink on canvas, pen-and-ink on cloth, oil-paint on canvas, plastography works on paper and copper-metal-foil works on plywood. As consistent in the present show, Fabayo used a combination of acrylic and pen-and-ink. His Snake Charmer (1995) attests to this. Aeiryin’s Oshogbo Ballet (2000) displays acrylic on canvas for illustrations. Adelodun employed pen-and-ink on cloth, as evident in his Sango Devotees (1987), a technique popularized by artists from the Osogbo School where Fabayo, Aeiryin and Adelodun trained.

Odita and Omoighe used oil colour. Examples of works of the artists are Odita’s Nightmare (1986) and Omoighe’s Portrait of the Nation (2004). There were also plastography works on paper, an accidental design in printmaking and copper-metal-foil works on plywood. Examples are Emedjo Uegogo (1981) and Amwa (1981), respectively. They are techniques discovered and personalized by Onobrapkeya who mud-wrestled himself to the top of the heap of imitators.

Adelodun, Aeiryin and Fabayo are unique master artists. They have been considered creative thinkers, in Nigerian circles, whose imagination combine the warmth of sensitive feelings with light and complexities of dreamlike forms with impulsive two-dimensional composition. They are certainly faithful students of the Osogho School during the colonial and post-colonial eras.

Odita, Omoighe and Onobrakpeya on the other hand have sound academic art education. Odita was trained in Nigeria and in US, while Omoighe was trained in Nigeria and Onobrapkeya was also trained in Nigeria. However, their numerous visits to Canada, Europe and US further exposed them to western European academic art tradition. Thus, one would expect their works to be completely academic art in style. But there is a limit to style prediction based on art training.

The common distinguishing characteristic unifying the works of the six Nigerian masters was their compelling nature. They go back to the heart of African legacy as they demostrated good knowledge of the principles of composition.

The exhibition, coming from Africa to US through American collectors has gone back to Africa as a way of unifying African cultural ideals.