Biography
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.
As a
member of the Ọdụnke Community of Artists, Udechukwu co-authored
four of its plays, including the prize-winning Ọjaadịlị (Ibadan:
Oxford UP, 1977). Udechukwu’s poems have appeared in several
anthologies and periodicals, while his first book of poems, What the
Madman Said (Bayreuth, Germany: Boomerang, 1990), won the
ANA/Cadbury Prize for Poetry (Nigeria) and received Honorable
Mention for the Okigbo Prose/Poetry Prize (All Africa).
In
addition to creative works, Udechukwu has published articles in
books, exhibition catalogues and journals on aspects of traditional
and contemporary African art, and Igbo oral literature.
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).
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