Victor Ehikhamenor

Victor Ehikhamenor
Born Udomi-Uwessan, Edo State, Nigeria
Nationality Nigerian
Education Ambrose Ali University, University of Maryland
Occupation Visual artist, writer, photographer.

Victor Ehighale Ehihkamenor is a prolific award-winning Nigerian visual artist, writer, and photographer, once described as "undeniably one of Africa’s most innovative contemporary artists"[1] and one of "42 African Innovators to Watch".[2]

Education, work, and influence

Ehikhamenor was born in Udomi-Uwessan, Edo State, Nigeria. He was educated in Nigeria and in the United States. He returned from the United States in 2008 to work in Lagos. His work is strongly influenced by work done by villagers especially his grandmother who was a cloth weaver. His uncle was alsoa photographer, his maternal grandfather a blacksmith, and his mother, a local artist.[1] He is also inspired by wall paintings and installation arts, mostly in community shrines.[3][4][5] This has been an enduring feature of his work, which is abstract, symbolic and politically motivated; and influenced by the duality of African traditional religion and the interception of Western beliefs, memories and nostalgia.

Ehikhamenor's art and photographs have been used for editorials as well as cover art on books by authors such as Chimamanda Adichie, Helon Habila and Chika Unigwe. They have also been illustrated on fabric and exhibited at international fashion parades.[6]

He has held numerous solo art exhibitions across the world. In 2016, he was one of 11 Nigerian artists invited to join twenty three Indonesian artists in the grand exhibition at the Biennale. At the Jogja National Museum, he showed an installation titled "The Wealth of Nations."[1]

Ehikhamenor has published numerous fiction and critical essays with academic journals, mainstream magazines and newspapers from around the world including The New York Times, CNN Online, Washington Post, Farafina, AGNI Magazine and Wasafiri. His short story, "The Supreme Command", won the Association of Commonwealth Broadcasters Award in 2003. His debut poetry collection, Sordid Rituals, was published in 2002.

His second book, Excuse Me! (2012), a satirical creative non-fiction view of life as an African both at home and abroad, is a recommended text in two Nigerian universities.

Selected book cover designs

Awards and residencies

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Victor Ehikhamenor: The Innovative Maverick of Contemporary African Art", Ventures Africa, 11 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "42 African Innovators to Watch", Ventures Africa, 11 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "Musing with Victor Ehikhamenor" Nigerianstalk/Kola Tubosun. June 2013.
  4. ↑ "The ‘Natural’ Artist: Amatoritsero Ede in conversation with Victor Ehikhamenor" MTLS. September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Victor Ehikhamenor: Shaped by memory and tribal tradition" Financial Times. March 27, 2015
  6. ↑ "'The Art of Victor Ehikhamenor, Discovered Through Fashion'". Black Fabulousity. 25 February 2015.
  7. ↑ "Announcing Bellagio Center Residency Award Winners", Africa Center. 11 May 2016.
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