Bruce Onobrakpeya

Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya is a Nigerian artist, born in 1932 in Agbara Otor, Delta State, who works as a printmaker, painter and sculptor and is regarded as among the most successful artists to emerge from West Africa in the twentieth century, influencing generations of Nigerian artists in the postcolonial era. He pioneered several printmaking techniques, including bronzed lino relief, plastocast relief and metal foil deep etching, and his work blends Western representational training with Nigerian folklore, traditional African sculpture and spiritual themes; he also developed the Ibiebe writing system, an ideographic script combining geometric and curvilinear glyphs drawn from Urhobo heritage and various calligraphic traditions. His work is held by institutions including the Tate Modern in London, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and he has received UNESCO's Human Living Treasure Award in 2006 and Nigeria's National Creativity Award in 2010.