Bag of Wisdom: Igbo Knowledge and the Art of Obiọra Udechukwu

This exhibition celebrates the forming of wisdom through experience. It features a new mural painted for the exhibition space, Ife Kwụlụ … Ife Akwụdebe Ya (Where One Thing Stands … Another Thing Will Stand Beside It), and a selection of works by Obiọra Udechukwu to reflect a life of learning and teaching through a range of artistic media. As a visual artist and a poet, he often combines both media in his work, while frequently creating unique innovations with traditional Igbo art, such as uli body and wall designs. 

The selected works draw together experience with traditional masquerades and festivals, body and wall paintings, as well as the crisis of war and the balance between tradition and change. As a leading member of the Nsukka group, an art movement founded in the 1970s at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obiọra Udechukwu has helped to preserve and transform traditional Nigerian art forms with innovative art practices.