Bruce onobrakpeya biography

On October 1, Nigeria is granted full independence from the British government. Palm Wine Women, serigraph. Workshops and Experimentation: As an art student in the late s, Onobrakpeya was trained in the academic European methods inherited by the British colonial regime, a pedagogical system that taught compositional proficiency but obscured local modes of visual expression.

His plastographs, a kind of printmaking technique he experiments with inwill become his signature medium and make much of his artwork immediately recognizable. Among the more enterprising and radical clergymen working in Nigeria is Father Kevin Carroll —who through the Society of African Missions establishes art workshops in Nigeria and commissions Onobrakpeya in to paint a mural of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross for St.

Throughout the rest of his career, Onobrakpeya will juxtapose and blend Christian and Nigerian traditions, both by reinterpreting Biblical scenes through the lens of midcentury decolonization in Nigeria and by adopting and reconfiguring compositions from Western Christian art. The Nigerian Civil War, an armed conflict between the national government of Nigeria and the secessionist Republic of Biafra, representing the Igbo ethnic group, takes place during this period.

The war will result in millions of deaths and affect Nigerian artists such as Onobrakpeya, who represents the surrounding cultural and social tensions in his art. The south wall of the church with the Stations, Photograph courtesy of Paul Wood. Executes mural of Fourteen Stations of the Cross for St. Bruce Onobrakpeya received an honourary D.

Like Loading Subscribe Subscribed. Sign me up. Sinceas an experimental artist, Onobrakpeya has discovered, innovated and perfected several techniques both in printmaking and relief sculpture that are uniquely Nigerian. Generally, printmaking is a fine art process of producing pictures from a plate which the artist has previously created.

Having conceived the idea, the artist then creates an image or images on a plate through any of the printmaking techniques. The images are then transferred onto a paper or any other surface by printing or embossing method. The advantage is that the artist can use one of such plates to produce as many copies of the artwork as required, sometimes giving them various colours.

Onobrakpeya has increased the techniques tremendously. Bronzed lino Relief is a collage of used lino blocks with bronze colour patina. Onobrakpeya developed this relief technique in as a way of preserving used blocks which in themselves possess sculptural qualities. Plastocast Relief is a painted low-relief design that was cast with resin.

The idea started as an extension of the bronzed lino relief. The used plastograph plates like used lino blocks have sculptural low relief effects which make them unique as art works. An attempt to retain the original used plates, and at the same bruce onobrakpeya biography give collectors a chance to possesses and share the beauty of the original, led Onobrakpeya to develop a method of creating other original plates from existing used plates through the use of plaster of Paris.

Sometimes, small plates with the same or similar themes are arranged together and cast to form a larger picture. A further development in plastocast relief is carving directly on abandoned or congealed plaster of Paris then applying resin on the cast and pulling out a positive. However, for a deep engraving on plaster of Paris to produce bold relief, depends on the nature of the plaster of Paris.

Bruce onobrakpeya biography

Thisis known as plastocast plate. It is painted or tinted plastocast plate that becomes a plastocast relief. Plastograph is a term given by Onobrakpeya to describe his deep etching technique that he innovated in through what he referred to as the Hydrochloric Acid Accident. It is an engraving on a low relief surface made of zinc or similar surface material and printed in the intaglio style.

Additive Plastograph is another technique that involves making of print images on a sheet of sand paper, using glue as a drawing medium. This is glued to the sand paper using intensive solar heat. Ink is then applied to the resultant images by the intaglio inking process. Any link in excess is wiped off with a dry cloth. This is later taken to the press to register the relief already created by the glue on a soaked and semi-dried cartridge printing paper.

Finally, the registered impressions are painted, using pastel oil to achieve the desired forms by the artist. Metal Foil Deep Etching is a plastograph print in which aluminium foil is used to draw the engraved images. The thin foil is cut and placed on an engraved plate and then the embossed sheet is removed, turned over and filled with resin to stabilise the relief.

The resin filled foil is then laminated on plywood or no any other surface. Onobrakpeya first started experimenting with foils and from the experiments transformed the foils into a print medium in the s. He used already printed plates to try out the technique. Metal Foil Relief Print is a three-dimensional metal foil print drawn on a plastocast plate.

A fairly bruce onobrakpeya biography foil is cut and placed over a plate and hand pressed to transfer the shape of the picture on the plate. The foil is then removed and filled from behind. It is then laminated onto a plywood and coloured in the same way as the metal foil deep etching print process already discussed above. Note that while the metal foil deep etching print is drawn from plastograph plates, the metal foil relief print is hand embossed on a plastograph plate.

Ivorex is a new technique, recently developed by Onobrakpeya, which simulates optical effect of old ivory engraving on bone or elephant tusk. The material used, however, is polymer. We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy available on request. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Bruce Onobrakpeya Nigerian, b. Biography Works Exhibitions Video. View works.