Dudu Arugha Emmanuel was born on the 5th August 1974 in Benin City, Edo State although originally from Delta state. He was brought up as part of a nuclear family with four other siblings (all boys). The parents were doting and supported the children in pursuit of their careers and Dudu received every encouragement towards realizing his goal as an artist.His early education was in Benin before proceeding to Auchi Polytechnic in 1994 where he graduated with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in 1999.

Dudu later attained a Bachelors degree in visual arts from the University of Lagos. He has taken part in 26 group exhibitions including Intrinsic in 2009 (This was a loose assemblage of diverse group of graduates). He has four awards for artistic excellence to his credit including the Spanish for painting in 2007.

On his work and art in general Dudu notes, “Being an artist living Africa, I am inspired more by my immediate environment and culture. I do not subscribe to the idea of one’s art being restrained to some traditional belief or way of life of a particular region or sub-region. I want people to appreciate my work generally; I want my audience to see me as an artist, not necessarily an African artist”

Dudu’s philosophy is one that should inspire any budding artist. He asserts that being good should be the secondary component to work (any work) and contends that the fundamental part to achieving ‘good’ is consistency which should be seen as the primary factor.