Olu Oguibe

Descripción del Artista

Olu Oguibe, born in 1964, is an artist, cultural scientist, and internationally active curator. For almost four decades Olu Oguibe has been working as a conceptual artist and thinker with an interest in wide-ranging themes, including social and formal issues. Although the Igbo system of thought and existential principles play a critical role in Oguibe’s creative endeavors—dictating his approach to conceptualism, abstraction, and the form of the art object—the vital force behind his art is his experiences as a child in Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. While Olu Oguibe’s work at documenta 14 in Athens is an archive of the human tragedy of the Nigerian Civil War, his work in Kassel is an affirmation of the timeless, universal principles of attention and care towards all those affected by flight and persecution. “I was a stranger and you took me in,” is written in German, English, Arabic, and Turkish on the four sides of the sixteen-meter high monument currently situated in Kassel’s Königsplatz. The artist After studying at the University of Nigeria and receiving his doctorate in London, he taught at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the University of Illinois in Chicago, and at the University of South Florida, where he held the Stuart Golding Endowed Chair in African Art. He gave up his professorship for Painting and African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut some time ago to fully dedicate himself to his own artistic practice. Oguibe’s work has been shown at institutions including the Whitney Museum in New York, the Whitechapel Gallery and the Barbican Centre in London, as well as in the Migros Museum in Zurich. He took part in the Venice Biennale in 2007—the first year in which Africa was first represented with a pavilion. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world and at biennials and triennials in Venice, Havana, Busan, and Johannesburg. He has also created permanent installations in Germany, Japan, and Korea, and his works are included in numerous collections. Oguibe has curated exhibitions for various locations, including the Tate Modern in London and the Venice Biennale’s Aperto. His writing on art, literature, and theory has appeared in a long list of books, journals, and magazines. In 2013, Oguibe received the Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award for his work. He lives and works in the small town of Rockville, Connecticut. Oguibe has been awarded with the important Arnold Bode Prize 2017 from the documenta 14 City of Kassel. Previous award winners 1980 Hannsjörg Voth 1981 Mario Merz 1982 Gerhard Richter 1983 Gerhard Merz 1984 Walter Pichler 1985 Ulrich Rückriem 1986 Rebecca Horn 1987 Wolfgang Laib 1988 Edward Kienholz 1990 Thomas Schütte 1992 Reiner Ruthenbeck 1994 Olaf Metzel 1996 Tony Oursler 1997 Richard Hamilton 1999 Penny Yassour 2001 Stan Douglas 2002 Maria Eichhorn 2004 Maurizio Cattelan 2006 Hans Schabus 2007 Romuald Hazoumé 2009 Urs Lüthi 2011 Goshka Macuga 2012 Thomas Bayrle 2014 Nairy Baghramian 2016 Hiwa K