Ibe Onyeka, 1971 | Abstract painter

Nigerian-born American painter Ibe Onyeka has achieved international recognition for his dramatic approach to painting.

Described as one of the most exciting young painters 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.

Ibe looks for inspiration in “natural and humanistic traditions of contemporary realism and abstraction”.

His paintings convey a spectrum of human emotions.

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 artist 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.

Encouraged by his father, a painter himself, Ibe was introduced to drawing as a youth.

He achieved success at the age of sixteen when he first exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Lagos, Nigeria.

Ibe was quickly offered a full scholarship to study art at the high school.

He went on to train at the University of Benin in Nigeria, earning first class honors in fine arts.

After moving to the United States, he continued his education at Georgia State University.

Ibe has traveled extensively through the United States, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

His work has been featured in art publications as well as major museums, private collections, and galleries around the world.