One of Nigeria’s most noted contemporary artists, Mr. Emmanuel Ekefrey is part of the popular Lagos exhibition circuit, he is also part of the global art world, especially in England and France. His busy and colorful paintings are his unique trademark. What is particularly fascinating about Ekefrey's work is his ability to combine a strong graphic style with a great deal of imagination. The monumental and thematically complex painting below features three central figures, surrounded by a few larger ancestral faces watching over them. In the background, hundreds of miniature ancestral faces emerge and recede, representing previous Ibibio African ceremonies. The Ibibio coastal people, primarily located in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and eastern Abia State in southern Nigeria, are connected to these ancestral traditions through the artwork. Ekefrey’s graffiti covers the canvas with a plethora of tiny faces that give the artwork a multi-perspective depth to the primary figures and the a...
In 1980, as a senior in college, I interned at the Kennedy Center in Arts Administration. The concept of studying at the Kennedy Center (KC) under some of the finest arts administrators seemed almost foreign to a young man who went to high school in Wolf Point, MT, on the Sioux and Assiniboine - Fort Peck Reservation. After my internship, I landed another job that fall in Washington, DC. In the early spring of 1982, Kool Cigarettes (part of the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company) was sponsoring a one-day jazz festival at the Kennedy Center. I was asked to assist with the festival participants because I knew the entire building, including the intricate back hallways not known by the public and some of the staff. I had also served as an assistant backstage manager for the American College Theatre Festival, which held several performances at the KC yearly. Kool Jazz Festival Backstage Pass and Working Credentials I arrived early on the day of the Jazz Festival and received my backstage ...