Onobrakpeya

Bruce Onobrakpeya (b. 1932) is a Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor. One of the fathers of Nigerian modernism and a founding member of the Zaria Art Society, he has exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. the Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos. Onobrakpeya’s first solo exhibition at an American museum, The Mask and the Cross was in April 2023 at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. The exhibition will describe the artist’s creative phase from 1967 through 1978, during which he created numerous works marrying Nigerian tradition, folklore, and cosmology with Catholic motifs and stories from the Bible. Today, his works can be found in the permanent collections of the Vatican Museum in Rome; the National Gallery in Nairobi; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; The British Museum, and more recently the Tate Modern, London.

Bruce Onobrakpeya of Nigeria, one of the three artists given special attention by the show, makes powerful, even magical prints, as well as densely patterned metal reliefs pulling together mythology, history and current events. The approach to materials can be crucial to an appreciation of the way an artist stretches tradition.

Michael Brenson

New York Times Jan 1990