Artist of the Week – Chinedu Ogheneroh

POSTED IN Animation, Art, Art history, Culture, Digital art
By Adefoyeke Ajao
Chinedu Ogheneroh is a proficient illustrator, colourist and graphic designer. Alternately known as Lord Kpuri, the artist is also a writer and poet with a published anthology, “Chioma, If I Sell Something, Will You Buy?” to his name.

 

 

Born in 1993, Ogheneroh’s renditions articulate his thoughts about the beauty and physical appearance of African women. Many of his colourful 2D illustrations feature female characters that look prepped to step into a comic strip or a motion picture if they are asked to. While some of these characters are realistic depictions of women, some have exaggerated features and facial expressions that reveal the illustrator’s fun side.

 

 

Ogheneroh’s creations reveal a certain fascination with Uli design, a form of skin painting practised by Igbo women. His interest in this cosmetic practice was developed while studying at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN); an institution famed for producing the members of the Nsukka Group, an art movement committed to reviving the practice of Uli Art.

 

 

In his “Facial Series”, Ogheneroh conceptualises what contemporary women would look like if they were adorned with Uli designs. His models, albeit digital, are covered in a series of white motifs that are in sharp contrast to their dark skin and blue eyes; blue eyes that symbolise desirable traits such as “trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence [and] faith”. In works such as “Asa” (Beautiful), “Ose Foto” (Photographer) and “Onye Na Ere Tomatoes (Tomatoes Advertiser), his characters’ features are overstated, but they are no less sophisticated than the abstract characters in works such as “Aru Nji” (Black Skin) and “Star Child” that feature spectral, clean-shaven women.

 

 

Ogheneroh makes clever use of colour in creating playful pieces of art. Whether he is spoofing or being realistic, his digitised protagonists approach beauty from multiple perspectives and give an ancient practice the opportunity to re-emerge.
To see more of Chinedu Ogheneroh’s work, visit his Art635 page, or his Instagram profile @lord_kpuri
Share
this article
1,885Total views