Obiora Udechukwu, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Fine Arts and Coordinator of the African Studies Program at St. Lawrence University, USA, was born in 1946 and educated at Dennis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS), Onitsha, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, where he majored in art and taught for many years.

Udechukwu is one of the principal artists associated with Nsukka whose works reference Igbo Uli drawing and painting, and have attracted considerable attention in Nigeria and internationally. In 1997, The Poetics of Line, an exhibition of works by seven of the Nsukka artists was held at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Udechukwu’s works have been exhibited in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and the Caribbean, and are in public collections in Nigeria, Germany, Britain and USA.

A founding member of the Aka Circle of Exhibiting Artists, Udechukwu has been involved in several cultural initiatives, and is associated at the editorial or advisory level with influential journals like Okike: An African Journal of New Writing (founded by Chinua Achebe) and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (founded by Okwui Enwezor).