ABOUT THE ARTIST
Nigerian-American artist, Victor Ekpuk is based in Washington, DC.
He is renowned for glyph-like paintings and drawings that are inspired by the aesthetic philosophies of indigenous African writing systems and graphic symbols from diverse cultures.
His work explores the human condition, drawing upon a wide spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses.
His works have been featured in exhibitions at Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, 12th Havana Biennial, Dakar Biennial, The Tang museum, Hood Museum, Fowler Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Newark Museum, The World Bank, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the 1st Johannesburg Biennial.
His artworks are in such prestigious collections as the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Brooks Museum, The World Bank, Newark Museum, Hood Museum, Krannert Art Museum, United States Art in Embassies Art Collection, and Fidelity Investment Art Collection.
Ekpuk has been awarded several commissions by major museums in the United States. In 2016, he was commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art to design trophies awarded to recipients of the museum’s first African Artist Awards. One of the recipients was Yinka Shonibare MBE. In 2017, he completed a large-scale 30 x 18ft. centerpiece mural commission at the North Carolina Museum of Art in the newly opened African art gallery. In the same year, has also created a 58ft. mural commissioned by the Brooks museum, in Memphis, Tennessee.
He is currently commissioned by Penguin Random House Publishers to illustrate new covers of popular books by Africa’s most renowned author, Chinua Achebe. These volumes include, Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of The People and other well-loved Achebe novels.