Onyeka Ibe

Who is Onyeka Ibe?

Onyeka Ibe is a Nigerian-born American abstract expressionist painter. He achieved success at the age of sixteen when he first exhibited his work at The National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos. Described as one of the most exciting young painter to emerge from Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s, he was awarded “The Best SOLO Artist of the Year 2006” at the International Artexpo New York. In July 2007, Art Business News profiled and named him as one of “Today’s Top Artist".

Ibe was born not long after the end of the Nigerian civil war and grew up in a developing democracy that was abruptly terminated. Violence became the order of the day. As a youth, Ibe realized that his artists’ sensibilities could move him in either of two directions—either to fight back at such dehumanizing situations, or to escape inward by searching for elements that reflect humanity. He chose the latter.