Obiora Udechukwu

Obiora Udechukwu began studying at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria before transferring to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as conditions in the north diminished before the start of the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran war) in 1967. Studying under Uche Okeke at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka while he was department head, Udechukwu took part in the full development of an uli style to express renewed interest in Igbo culture after the destruction of the Biafran war.

Udechukwu's works are preoccupied with war and suffering, long recounting its ramifications. His elongation and distortion of the human form relays the idea of depletion and suffering, to the distortion of the social world. His dark backgrounds recall death, while his red ones relate to blood and fire. His prewar artistic realism became dramatic and emotional with the war. The Biafran war caused artists to blend social concerns with their aesthetic interests and experimentations. His work is largely directed by uli aesthetic principles but he has also been influenced by Chinese Li drawings and after 1977, the eastern Nigerian design system, nsibidi.

In his works he attempts to achieve a balance of positive and negative space. Though Udechukwu did not come from an Igbo area where they employed nsibidi, he completed his own research into the art form. To him, nsibidi was important as an indigenous two-dimensional motif system with appealing designs, strong symbolism and interesting meanings.

The oil boom of the mid 1970s and the ensuing political and economic corruption encouraged him to continue producing social and political art in order to question the suffering, poverty and unequal distribution of wealth in Nigeria. Landscape recurs as a major theme in Udechukwu's art for its symbolism as a site of both beauty and destruction. He was a senior lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka until 1997.