MY DEBUT|NKECHI NWOSU IGBO

The toughest time I remember, was when my husband and I were preparing for our first major show and we hand painted our frames ourselves! I carried strips of wood from the wood market on a bike, all the way to the park

Nkechi Nwosu Igbo at the centre with Chuma Nwokolo and Uche Peter

 

 

Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo is a poet, installation artist and painter, living and working in the city of Lagos. She was born in 1973, and studied Mixed Media Painting at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where she was inspired by the works of Obiora Udechukwu and Olu Oguibe. She started exhibiting quite early and has been involved in over 80 exhibitions as an artist and in curatorial roles. Nkechi serves as the curator at The Edge Studio and Artistic Director at Mild Red Studio.

For over a decade, the artist has consciously made her works and impact on the art global space felt in a multidimensional ways. Nkechi Igbo’s works have continuously reflected the educational system of Nigeria. Her unapologetically crude installations are known for their very high level of critical activism and social obligation.

With an enviable and impressive career manual, Nkechi Igbo is a thoroughbred artist who has become a model today for aspiring female artists to look up to. She succumbs to neither stress nor fatigue, rather they are complements to be on the driver’s end of the wheel. Some of her collaborative efforts are Interrupted Lives in 2012, Old News 2009, Closures and Enclosures 2009, Identities and Labels 2005, the CHOGM exhibition 2003,

Nkechi Igbo’s memorable solo exhibitions are Not Ready to Walk Away 2009, Implied Walls 2006, Creating Space, Erasing Space 2003, Urban Ugliness 2001,

The artist still recalls the humble beginning, when it was a rough riding moment in her life. “I was always so busy that I didn’t stop to think of things being rough. Even as undergraduate, I never did let my finances (or lack of it) affect my ideas. I could spend everything on materials and then live on Coca Cola and bread. The toughest time I remember, was when my husband and I were preparing for our first major show and we hand painted our frames ourselves! I carried strips of wood from the wood market on a bike, all the way to the park. Looking at my bruised palms, then I know I had fully paid my dues! 

by Aito Ireho