The Organising Committee of the Life In My City Art Festival (LIMCAF) has released the list of members of the National Jury Panel as well as the Curator of the Festival’s Grand Finale Exhibition for the 2024 edition of the Festival.
A statement from Dr Ayo Adewunmi, Art Director of LIMCAF, says that the final list of the National Jury Panel was agreed and can only now be made public after a meeting of the Organising Committee in Enugu last weekend. This is in keeping with the Organising Committee’s policy to protect jury members from possible pressure during the conduct the jury process.
The distinguished members of the 2024 Panel include:
Prof. Blaise Gundu Gbaden of the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, as Chairman of the Panel.
Professor Blaise Gundu Gbaden hails from Benue State, but was born in Ilorin, Kwara State. He attended Primary School in Vom. Plateau State and secondary school at the Boy’s Secondary School, Gindidri also in Plateau State.
Even though he was admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to study for a degree in Sociology he would later switch to Fine and Applied Arts after just one session. It is within this period too that he joined the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers and was sent for training at the seminary in Ejisu, Ghana. He later returned to Nigeria and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1994 and subsequently obtained the Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1999.
Prof. Blaise Gbundu taught Painting and Drawing at the University of Maiduguri for over a decade before transferring his services in 2012 to Federal University Lafia where he now teaches Painting, Drawing, and Art Theory courses to both undergraduate and postgraduate students of Fine Arts and Visual and Creative Arts. He was elevated to the rank of a full Professor of Painting in 2021.
Blaise is a member of a number of professional bodies, including the Borno Museum Society (BMS); the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) where he served as Secretary for Borno and Yobe states from 2002-2005; the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA) and is the founder and patron of the Maiduguri Art Club (MAC) and the FCT Council for Arts and Culture. He is a recipient of the Willibrord Haas Certificate of Proficiency in Printmaking.
Blaise considers himself a postmodernist painter who is currently exploring expendable ready-made materials to create fabric walls, which depict social partitions in human society. He is also interrogating visual poems through the medium of circular canvasses with predominantly acrylic paints and found objects. Tactility is quite central to his artistic vision.
Professor Babásèhìndé Augustine Ademuleya is an artist, art historian, and art educator. He graduated from Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo with a B.A.Ed. (Fine Arts) degree in 1991 and obtained his M.A. and PhD in African Studies (Visual Arts) from the University of Ibadan in 1997 and 2002 respectively. He joined the Federal College of Education (Tech.) Akoka in 1993, and later moved to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 2004.
His teaching and research philosophy emphasises the importance of African communal art with specific attention to iconography and contextual usages. It also extends to the study of the works of contemporary Nigerian artists who explore African philosophy, idioms and iconography. His studio practice revolves around repurposing discarded materials as objects of aesthetic and utility, and he has continued to coordinate visual art projects on the repurposing of waste which, over time, has become a viable subject of research area for postgraduate students in his department.
Professor Ademuleya has also curated exhibitions of artists who engage in repurposing waste materials for artistic expression. He has supervised several undergraduate and postgraduate studio projects and theses, seven of which are PhD and has mentored emerging artists, art historians, and art educators. He was a Visiting Lecturer at Savannah State University, Georgia (2010) and the University of Parakou, Republic of Benin (2012). His astuteness earned the Department a collaboration with the Savannah State University, Georgia, USA, and the OAU in 2008. He has served as the Head of the Department and Chairman of his Faculty Postgraduate Committee. Professor Ademuleya is well-published, and his scholarly works have significantly contributed to the understanding of the basic theory that art requires interpretation, and the interpretation requires our knowledge of the history and contextual usage of the art, without which the meaning and the very essence of the art would be lost.
Obioha Onyebuchim Nwaegbe (Obi Nwaegbe) is a Nigerian multimedia artist with a bachelor’s degree in Painting from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is the Founder and Executive Director, Artstier Company Limited, an Art Production and Consulting company based in Lagos and Abuja, an independent writer, curator, and art consultant.
On completion of the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in 2006, Obi went into full-time studio practice. His works majorly explore cultural modification possibilities in Nigeria & Africa with the intention to create a more adaptable ecosystem in the continent’s engagement with other cultures and political systems around the world. He has shown his works in local and international exhibitions notably “Faces & Forms, an exhibition of four contemporary artists held at the Exhibition Pavilion, Abuja, Nigeria in 2018; the Sanaa National Art Festival in Adelaide, Australia in 2019, and “Sensitive Content”, dedicated to the creative and statistical presentation and discussion of Femicides globally, at the ID Art Lab, Art Connection Foundation, Miami in May 2023. In summary, Obi Nwaegbe has seven solo exhibitions and over thirty group exhibitions to his credit.
Obioha Nwaegbe is a human and environmental rights activist with a special interest in building human resource capacity in the field of visual creativity. Most recently, he has co-opted domestic and industrial waste as an important tool in his art production. A 2022 recipient of the Ford Foundation Good Neighbour Grant Award, he facilitated workshops in environmental re-orientation for art students at public secondary schools in Lagos State. His company, Artstier Company Limited, also partnered with the Nigerian-German Centre for Job’s Migration & Integration, under the auspices of the German Agency for International Development, for the orientation of young graduate artists towards establishment of their creative careers in different parts of Nigeria.
Obi Nwaegbe holds a certificate of achievement in Architectural Imagination from the University of Harvard, Cambridge Massachusetts and is currently undergoing a postgraduate study at the Federal University Lafia, Nasarawa State in Fine Arts.
Nadama Mustapha Garba hails from Zamfara State, he holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design in 1997, an M.F.A. in Painting in 2014 and a PhD Painting Degree in 2018 all from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Following his degrees, he has used lines in exploring the floral forms in painting, he has also conducted studio research exploring organic vestiges as a medium for social commentary in painting. The artist enjoys drawing and has produced conceptual drawings that speak to his environment.
He has exhibited widely both solo and in group and his works are both seen in private and public spaces, Nadama as a researcher has published several of his thoughts in reputable journals and has attended several conferences, symposiums, and other academic and art activities. He is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Fine Art, Faculty of Environmental Design, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
May Okafor (Ph.D) is an award-winning studio artist and scholar. She graduated from the Fine and Applied Arts Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in 2010. That same year, she was a prize winner at the Life in My City Art Festival. Also, in 2015, her work emerged as the Most Outstanding Production, one of the three prestigious awards at the National Art Competition organized by the African Artists’ Foundation in collaboration with Nigerian Breweries, Plc.
May Okafor’s explorations include works in ceramics, installation, mixed-media and performance. She is interested in interrogating cultural practices and performances, particularly within the African context, using innovative ideas and materials. Her works are typically eclectic, highly conceptual and unconventional. Her studio-based doctoral studies investigate the relatedness of ceramics with ritual performances as she explores her art practice alongside two prominent pottery communities in Ushafa, Nigeria, and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The fieldwork that she carried out in those communities has continued to inform her scholarship and artistic interest.
May has been featured in exhibitions in parts of Nigeria, South Africa and the USA. May teaches fine art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
AREO Margaret Olugbemisola is a Professor of Textile Art and Art History. She obtained a Bachelor of Art (BA Honours) in Fine Arts from University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife. She practised for fifteen years after her first degree as an entrepreneur in Textile and Fashion Designing and trained many school leavers who are now successful entrepreneurs.
She later bagged a Master of Fine Art (MFA) degree from Obafemi Awolowo University with specialisation in Textile Designing. Her MFA research was on Creative Usage of Leather for Textile Embellishment.
She joined the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology first as a part time lecturer in the year 2000 and later as a full-time lecturer in 2002. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Art History from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, and her Ph.D. Thesis was on Fifty Years of Adire in Southwestern Nigeria.
She has held many solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions both within and outside Nigeria. She has been a member of Textile Society of America (TSA) since 2005 and was an awardee of the first ever TSA Student/New Professional Award in Canada in 2006. She was also an awardee of the TSA Scholarship for the Textile Close Up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in 2015. She also has to her credit numerous commissioned works.
Professor Gbemi Areo is a member of many professional bodies such as: Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Museum Society of Nigeria, National Association of Visual Art Educators (NAVAE), Ceramic Association of Nigeria (CeRAN), American Association of University Women (AAUW), Costume Colloquium, Florence, Italy, Art Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), Member, Professional Women’s Advisory Board for American Bibliographical Institute to mention a few.
She has served tenures as Head Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences.
Among several other positions she is presently the Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences and also is currently serving as the first ever female Senate Member on LAUTECH Governing Council.
CURATOR
LIMCAF Art Director, Dr Adewunmi also announced the reappointment of Amarachi Okafor as Curator for the 2024 Grand Finale Exhibition of the 100 Best New Works from the over 700 entries at the close of submissions in May. The Best 100 were selected during the regional exhibitions in the fifteen regional centres which place in all the geopolitical zones of Nigeri.
AMARACHI OKAFOR
Practising consistently since 2002, and inspired by people (living, human actions) and every day, Amarachi Okafor’s highly experimental work often speaks about society as she explores, and transforms used commonplace material alongside traditional ones. She works mostly from her research and production space in Abuja, Nigeria. Her unique art practice is international and very much rooted in the local.
Amarachi’s studies in the field of art rewards her with the following degrees: BA (Painting), 2002; MFA (Sculpture), 2006 (both from University of Nigeria Nsukka); and MA in Curatorial Practice, 2012 from Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, UK.
She has shared workspaces at Universal studios and Aina Onabolu studios, Lagos; and had private studios at different times in Nsukka, Umuahia and Abuja- in Nigeria; and in a few other places around the world.
She was recipient of the Unesco Aschberg artists’ award in 2007- leading to a residency at Lademoen Kustnerverksteder [LKV] in Trondheim Norway. She was also the Commonwealth Foundation Commonwealth Connections recipient in 2009 which supported her travels for research projects and a collaborative exhibition.
She has also been granted residencies to Nkd – Norway and to Popopstudios, Nassau- Bahamas. Upon graduating from Falmouth University, Amarachi won the Art Department’s internship scholarship that year.
In 2014, she won the jury prize of the National Art Competition (Nigeria). She has exhibited at Babel Art Space, Norway, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales, Manchester Art Gallery, UK, Jogjarkarta Biennial, Indonesia; and in recent years she has taken to making public art projects with audiences in galleries and alternative art spaces, a unique endeavour that she refers to as relational public art.
She worked in the curatorial department of the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria, as curatorial assistant and rose to Senior Curator, through 2008-2015.
As part of her curatorial practice, she has supported many major exhibitions of works by other renowned artists at Museums and Biennials around the world. She was the Africa Commissioner for the Gangwon Triennial in 2021. She was the Curator for the Nigeria national annual youth art festival LIMCAF, for the year 2023.
Amarachi’s curatorial and art handling experience is noticeably global and truly eclectic including online exhibitions, a touring project through virtually all of Europe, among other specialized work in places as far flung as Saudi Arabia, Iceland and of course Nigeria.
Her art practice is focused on learning, participation [audience engagement]; experimentation and transformation. Her work takes on an exciting curatorial angle involving research and co-ordination, elements of design, architecture, and concepts around humanism, society, and the history of things
Signed
Kevin Ejiofor
Executive Director
