Oseloka Osadebe Nigerian, b. 1934

Professor Oseloka Osadebe, born in 1934, is an outstanding artist, playwright, theatre director, and teacher. He grew up in Onitsha, Anambra State, and, from an early age, distinguished himself as a brilliant draughtsman, eventually earning acceptance into the prestigious Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria. He became a pioneer member of the famous Zaria Art Society and graduated in 1962 with specialisation in painting and sculpture. He proceeded to teach art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from 1962 to 1965, before leaving the country on an Aggrey Fellowship for African Students to pursue graduate studies in the United States.

 

He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967, and he received a second master's degree in 1973 from the Goodman School of Drama, Chicago, specialising in scene design, lighting, and directing. He completed his doctoral work at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1981, specialising in

Western and African theatre and drama, and spent years teaching theatre and set design at numerous universities, including Jackson State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Tougaloo College, Spelman College, and Central State University. He is a member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education and the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education.

 

Osadebe retired in 2007 and has spent the last eleven years reviving his passion for visual art at his studio in Jackson, Mississippi. He returns to Nigeria for the first time in over fifty years to present a retrospective exhibition of rare works he created from 1960 to 2014.