Nigerian-born, New York-based photographer, Iké Udé, will hold the exhibition titled, Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty at Alliance Française, located at Mike
Adenuga Centre, 9 Osborne Road, Ikoyi.
A statement by the African Artists’ Foundation said the exhibition will
open at 8pm, on Saturday, June 1, 2019.
“Udé will be exhibiting solo for the first time in his native country, offering a substantial
presentation of his portraits of members of Nigeria’s vibrant movie scene, Nollywood.
Nollywood is a $3billion industry and the second largest film industry in the world,
with streaming services like Netflix having entered into the Nigerian market,” said the statement.
Udé, the statement further explained, orchestrates a dramatic cinematic atmosphere of light and colour, whereby the industry’s illustrious veterans, in company with the next generation of emerging talent pose in classically staged shots.
Pictorial representations include personalities such as Genevieve Nnaji, Stephanie Okereke Linus and Kunle Afolayan.
The thematic thread that intertwines this body of work, culminates in the centrepiece of
the collection titled ‘The School of Nollywood’. The title is both play on, and departure
from the artistic opulence of one of Raphael Sanzio Urbino’s notable fresco, The School
of Athens (1509). The painting is of a grandiose architectural framework, depicting
prominent philosophers of Greek antiquity, posed in a manner whereby they dominate
but do not crowd their environment.
Opening night at the MOCP Showcase of ‘Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty’
With these works of portraiture, Udé complements the discourse on the representation
of Africans in cinema, from colonial domination and inferior stereotypes to one of
intellect and creative agency in telling our own stories.
Ude’s exhibition has traversed major cities, having been shown at the Museum of
Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA and the prestigious Rencontres d’Arles Photo
Festival, France.
“We are very pleased to be bringing Udé’s Nollywood Portraits to Lagos, the birthplace of the
industry,” says Azu Nwagbogu, who is curator and founder of the African Artists’ Foundation/ LagosPhoto Festival.
Udé was born in Nigeria in the 1960s and has lived in New York City, NY for over
three decades. He is best known for his conceptual photographic portraits and self-
portraiture. Conversant with the world of fashion and celebrity, Udé gives conceptual aspects of performance and representation a new vitality, fusing his theatrical selves and multiple personae with his creative practice.
His works have been widely exhibited and collected both privately and by institutions,
including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Institution and the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Mr. Udé is author of Nollywood Portraits: A Radical
Beauty (Skira, 2016), Style Files: The World’s Most Elegantly Dressed (Harper Collins,
2008) and Beyond Decorum (MIT Press, 2000) and was publisher of the seminal
international magazine, aRUDE between 1995 and 2009. He was a 2017 TED Global
speaker and has featured on the coveted Vanity Fair International Best Dressed List three
times.
This exhibition was made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation and Alliance
Française, Lagos.