17 Facts About Bruce Onobrakpeya

Bruce Obomeyoma Onobrakpeya was born on 30 August 1932 and is a Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor.

Bruce Onobrakpeya has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Malmo Konsthall in Malmo, Sweden.

Bruce Onobrakpeya was born in Agbarha-Otor in Delta State, the son of an Urhobo carver.

Bruce Onobrakpeya was raised as a Christian but learned the traditional beliefs.

Bruce Onobrakpeya's family moved to Benin City, Edo State, when he was a child.

Bruce Onobrakpeya attended Western Boys High School, where he was taught art by Edward Ivehivboje.

In October 1957, Bruce Onobrakpeya was admitted to the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, now the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Bruce Onobrakpeya has said that the college gave him technical skills, but the Zaria Arts Society shaped his perspectives as a professional artist.

Bruce Onobrakpeya later attended a series of printmaking workshops in Ibadan, Oshogbo, Ife and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Maine, US.

Bruce Onobrakpeya was an important force in the renaissance in contemporary art in Nigeria.

Since 1966, as an experimental artist, Bruce Onobrakpeya has discovered, innovated and perfected several techniques both in printmaking and relief sculpture that are uniquely Nigerian.

Bruce Onobrakpeya developed this relief technique in 1966 as a way of preserving used blocks which in themselves possess sculptural qualities.

An attempt to retain the original used plates, and at the same time give collectors a chance to possesses and share the beauty of the original, led Bruce Onobrakpeya to develop a method of creating other original plates from existing used plates through the use of plaster of Paris.

Plastograph is a term given by Bruce Onobrakpeya to describe his deep etching technique that he innovated in 1967 through what he referred to as the Hydrochloric Acid Accident.

Bruce Onobrakpeya first started experimenting with foils and from the experiments transformed the foils into a print medium in the 1980s.

Bruce Onobrakpeya used already printed plates to try out the technique.

Bruce Onobrakpeya invented and refined this script called Ibiebe from 1978 to 1986, when he revisited in his art, ideas linked with traditional religion, customs and history.