BRUCE ONOBRAKPEYA GETS HONORARY DOCTOR OF ARTS AWARD FROM DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA.

Bruce Onobrakpeya

Bruce Onobrakpeya, a force in the Nigerian contemporary art movement, was born in 1932 in Agbarha-Otor, Delta State, Nigeria to an Urhobo carver. Onobrakpeya’s family moved to Benin City where he attended Western Boys’ High School and was introduced to art by teacher Edward Ivehivboje and by drawing classes at the British Council Art Club. Upon graduation, Onobrakpeya taught art at the Western Boys’ High School and the Ondo Boys High School.

In 1957, Onobrakpeya was granted a Federal Government Scholarship to attend the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, now the Ahmadu Bello University, where he studied fine arts and arts education. While a student, the Zaria Arts Society, later called the Zaria Rebels, was formed with the aim to “decolonize” the visual arts as taught by Europeans. Onobrakpeya states that while college taught him technical skills, the Zaria Arts Society taught him confidence in his ability to form a personal style.

Throughout the 1960s Onobrakpeya participated in artist workshops and apprenticed with sculptor Ben Enwonwu. In 1964 he became a founding member of the Society of Nigerian Artists. From the 1970s until the 1990s, Onobrakpeya was an artist-in-residence and professor at numerous institutions in the United States, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Much of Onobrakpeya’s work comprises stylistic elements and compositions rooted in traditional African sculpture and decorative arts. Onobrakpeya has no definitive style but instead specific periods of work that differ in content and media. His works range from lino cut prints, bronze, paintings, drawings and installations. The themes found in his works include folklore, Zarian landscape, Christianity, the Benin Kingdom, environmental degradation, politics, tradition, philosophy and social unrest. A testament to his skill and creativity as an artist, Onobrakpeya innovated several unique printmaking and relief sculpture techniques such as bronzed lino relief, plastocast relief, plastograph, additive plastograph, metal foil deep etching, metal foil relief print and ivorex. Furthermore, Onobrakpeya innovated and uses Ibiebe, a writing style that features invented script of ideographic geometric and curvilinear glyphs.

Onobrakpeya has taught and exhibited in the United States, Italy, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, Kenya and Germany. In 1999 he founded the Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation which organizes the annual Harmattan Workshop Series in Agbarha-Otor, encourages creative interaction among artists and scholars and aims to increase public awareness of African art. His work is held by various collections and he is the recipient of many honors.Onobrakpeya lives and works in Nigeria.

Onobrakpeya standing before Akporode Installation

As an experimental artist he was lucky to have had an early breakthrough, through the innovation of plastography in 1967. He is also a founding member of the Zaria Art School.  His exhibitions have contributed to a large body of literature which not only placed him as a contemporary and modern artist, but also created an artistic continuum for Nigerian art after Nok, Benin, Ife and Igbo Ukwu legacies.  He has exhibited at the Vatican, the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian institution in Washington D.C., U.S.A, and London Museum to mention a few places

As an installation artist, he has pioneered, developed and emphasized installations as an art form, since the early 1990s.  His inspiration has been drawn largely from the example of traditional African shrines.  Another inspiration for his installation art is the availability of numerous discarded objects, particularly those from used computers and the automobile industry.  A good example of his installation is a work titled Akporode which was shown in 2002, at U.C.L.A. Fowler Museum.  This piece is now on permanent display at the Onobrak Museum in Agbarha-Otor, Delta State.

We at BOF Salute and Celebrate our avatar  Bruce Onobrakpeya​  for bringing an elevated consciousness of our immeasurable valuable asset of Culture. As he is being honored on the 22nd of July 2017, with an honorary Doctor of Arts Award from the Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria, we wish him continued and enlightened Guidance as he journeys.

Onobrakpeya visits historic City of Onitsha

His Majesty Igwe Achebe with Royal fathers and Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya

His Majesty Igwe Alfred Achebe CFR, mni  with Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya MFR at a special reception for guests during Igwe Achebe's 10th Ofala Celebration.

This month Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya visited the historic city of Onitsha on the invitation of his Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, CFR, mni to witness Igwe Achebe's tenth Ofala,  in Onitsha. The Ofala  festivity goes back to the beginnings of Onitsha in the 16th century. Every Obi of Onitsha celebrates a yearly Ofala, which in the days gone by, was his annual emergence, when most of his subjects had an opportunity to behold him.

The Ofala festival is remarkable in the sense that it also celebrates the beginning of the Onitsha New Year and New Yam season. The festival  brings  most of the indigenes of Onitsha from far and wide, as well as friends and well wishers to witness festivities connected to the Igwe's celebrations of his yearly Ofala.

The festival is often very colorful and  characterized by the paying of tributes, salutations and making of gift presentations to the Obi of Onitsha.  Senior ranking members of the community, who include chiefs and elders, can be seen wearing their head gears which are colourful and often made of ostrich feathers. The dance and ceremony is often accompanied by royal drums called Egwuota. There is also a spectacular parade and outing  of different age grades who pay homage to the Igwe Achebe who is also known as Agbogidi.

Chiefs and elders, can be seen wearing their head gears which are colourful and often made of ostrich feathers.

 Onitsha is  a beautiful and picturesque city  by the famous River Niger and is home to an active community of visual artists like Ato Arinze, George Edozien, George Nwazugbo and Oliver Enwonwu who have all contributed in  no small measure to the vibrancy that contemporary Nigeria art enjoys.

But by far the most popular artist to have come from this great City is the legendary and iconic Ben Enwonwu, who had mentored Bruce Onobrakpeya many years before, and represents the greatest visual artist of the 20^th Century from Nigeria.

While in Onitsha Prof. Bruce Onobrakpeya paid a courtesy call with a few members and artists of the Harmattan Workshop Series to the Obi of Onitsha.

His Majesty is a passionate and dedicated collector of African art, and is in part responsible and share the credit for a new wave of revival and renaissance  in the appreciation  of wood carvings  in Onitsha, a traditional artform in Onitsha which was almost lost and extinct due to waning appreciation. His beautiful home which is located in one the scenic valleys of Onitsha, is also home to  his tremendous collection of Nigerian masterpieces, which are a joy to behold. His collection include a modest but  surprising number of Nigerian masterpieces which have been painstakingly acquired from all over the country in the last 20 years.
One of this pieces is a meduim sized painting called Agbogidi by Onobrakpeya, and was done in honour of Obi Achebe who is also a long time patron of Onobrakpeya 's works.
Onobrakpeya's visit to Onitsha was remarkable and nostalgic, because it is the first time in 70 years, since he visited Onitsha with his then guardian the late Mr Onakufe who taught as a teacher in a primary school there. He also vividly remembers on his last visit to Onitsha, seeing a group of hunters on their way back from a hunting expedition, wearing their full hunting gear and  colourful regalia. This certainly made an impression on young Bruce's mind.
At the courtesy visit and reception which followed at the Obi of Onitsha's  home. Onobrakpeya thanked   Igwe Achebe for the  hospitality  extended to him and several artists during the visit, the continued support of the arts and the fatherly role  Igwe Achebe had played in nurturing Nigerian art. Onobrakpeya prayed that God should give the progressive Igwe the wisdom to continue to be a pace setter in Cultural and environmental concerns.