Duke Asidere
Duke Asidere was born in Lagos and is one of Nigeria’s leading contemporary artists. He studied fine art at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and graduated with a first class in painting (1988). He also earned a Masters in fine art from the same institution (1990). From 1990 to 1995, Asidere lectured in painting, drawing and art history at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. In 2004, he took to photography under Don Barber’s tutelage. Since then, he has engaged with cameras to search for inspiration, themes and accidents to imbibe in his creative pursuits.
Asidere’s work engages contemporary African politics. Through visual metaphors, the artist comments on the everyday human drama that surrounds him; political, social, psychological or cultural. Furthermore, he adds an element of surprise to these sketches of human drama by infusing them with irony and humour. Asidere’s broad oeuvre ranges from headless or limbless figures and faces of strangely hybrid beings to densely populated urban landscapes, accentuated with thick strokes of vivid colour. He has also turned to car enamel paint, which he applies with a spray gun to produce emotionally charged works that retain figurative subject matter, and at the same time emphasise abstract qualities. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of Asidere’s style is his simplicity of form and expressive line, which he achieves with an economy of means.
Asidere has also participated in several solo and group exhibitions, both locally and internationaly