Bruce Onobrakpeya

Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya MFR, FSNA

Bruce Onobrakpeya was born in Agbarha-Otor, in present day Delta State of Nigeria on August 30, 1932. He is a printmaker, painter and sculptor and one of Africa’s best known and most highly respected artists. He has been described as a ‘living legend’ who was 'responsible for the renaissance in contemporary art in Nigeria'. He has had a professional career spanning several decades and many notable exhibitions at the Tate Modern Gallery, London, National Museum of African Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and Malmö Konsthall, Sweden to name a few.
Bruce is a well renowned and established name in art circles around the world.Bruce Onobrakpeya is a living memorial to diversity and has challenged and changed the art scene in Nigeria and the world over the past 50 years.Since his first one-man exhibition in Delta State in 1959, he hasparthibitions in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. His works are featured in several important public and private collections in Nigeria and abroad, such as the Vatican Museum in Rome (in commemoration of the 80th birthday of Pope paul VI and for which he received a gold medal in appreciation) and the National Museum of African Arts in Washington, D.C. U.S.A. In April of last year, one of Bruce’s works was sold for the largest sum ever paid for a piece of art in Nigeria.
2 monumental pieces of his artworks:Scavaging In a Lost Paradise, a mixed Media and installation, 2006 and Voices of Silenced Voices a 2006 painting and Mixed media will show all month long at the Harmattan Gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos. Bruce is published with his most recent book, in June 2009, being Jewels of Nomadic Images, a compelling narrative with illustrations on the disappearing culture of the environmentally challenged and endangered people of the Niger Delta.