VICTOR EKPUK
Born 1964 in Nigeria.
Lives and works in Washington, DC.
Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk takes the ancient Nigerian script Nsibidi as a starting point for his own abstract visual language. He considers drawing a fundamental aspect of his art practice, which also includes painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture, installation, and public art projects. His art began as an exploration of traditional graphics and writing systems in Nigeria and has evolved to embrace a broader spectrum of meaning rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses. Guided by the aesthetic philosophy Nsibidi, where sign systems are used to convey ideas, Ekpuk re-imagines graphic symbols from diverse cultures to form a personal style of mark-making that lives in the interstices of art and writing. According to the artist, “The subject matter of [his] work deals with the human condition explained through themes that are both universal and specific: family, gender, politics, culture, and identity."
Victor Ekpuk, Head, 2022, Hand painted steel, 35.5 x 23 x 8 in (90.17 x 58.42 x 20.32 cm), ed. 2/8
Victor Ekpuk, Mask, 2022, Hand painted steel, 35.5 x 23 x 8 in (90.17 x 58.42 x 20.32 cm), ed. 2/8
Victor Ekpuk, Afternoon With Lorenzo, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 132 in (182.88 x 335.28 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, Tête à Tête 1, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.92 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, Tête à Tête 2, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.92 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, Woman Bathing in the Moonlight, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.92 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, She said, He said, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, Liberian Girl, 2022, Acrylic and collage on paper, 30 x 22 in (76.2 x 55.88 cm)
Victor Ekpuk, Touch, 2011, Ink and pastel on paper, 40 x 40 in
Victor Ekpuk, Head of State, 2011, Graphite and pastel on paper, 48 x 60 in
Victor Ekpuk, Ruby, 2018, Ink and paper, 18 x 22 in
Victor Ekpuk, Found Green, 2018, Ink and paper, 18 x 22 in
Victor Ekpuk, Morning Prayer 2, 2016, Ink and paper, 18 x 22 in
Victor Ekpuk, Santa Fe Sunset (From the Santa Fe suite), 2013, Ink on paper, 49 x 38 in
Victor Ekpuk, Mickey On Broadway, 2014, Found objects on wood panels, 84 x 36 in each
Victor Ekpuk, The Politician, 2018, Powder coated steel, 28 x 36 x 6 in
Victor Ekpuk, The Prophet, 2019, Powder coated steel, 28 x 36 x 6 in
Victor Ekpuk, Woman in the Mirror, 2019, Powder coated steel, 28 x 36 x 6 in
Victor Ekpuk, Composition in Red 1, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 48 in
Victor Ekpuk, Composition in Red 2, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 48 in
Victor Ekpuk, Composition in Black 1, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 48 in
Victor Ekpuk, Composition in Black 2, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 66 x 48 in
Victor Ekpuk, Untitled 1, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 104 in
Victor Ekpuk, Untitled 3, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 96 x 69.5 in
Speaking to Artsy, Ekpuk suggested that the growing interest in his work from the region could be due to the “nature of the abstraction of my work that has to do with writing and touches on calligraphy,” adding that he believes the work “resonates with the aesthetics of the Middle East.”
Artist Viktor Ekpuk discovered that the symbols of the Nsibidi script could function as a form of abstraction — a way to reduce ideas to their essence.
[Ekpuk] may be the rare fine artist with the spirit of an incendiary cartoonist, but he doesn’t resort to strip comic tricks. His drawings, sculptures and acrylic paintings contain language, and ideas, too volatile to be contained by an oval.
Victor Ekpuk: Language and Lineage is on view at Art@Bainbridge, a gallery project of the Museum located in downtown Princeton. Four available rooms show seventeen selections from a thirty-year career.
His upcoming exhibit, Language and Lineage at Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey explores various themes that have unfolded in Ekpuk’s work over the last three decades.
Opening Saturday July 22, 2023 at the Princeton University Art Museum's Art@Bainbridge.
Here are some amazing Highlights from the show
The impressive side by side solo exhibitions work together, not apart. A love of deep color isn't all the artists have in common at Aicon.
A short video detailing the making of Afternoon with Lorenzo featured in the exhibition I am My Ancestor's Essence.
The Phillips Collection is marking its 100th anniversary with a new graphic installation by D.C. based artist Victor Ekpuk. FOX 5's Gwen Tolbart spoke to the artist about his work, which was inspired by ancient Nigerian script.
Ekpuk’s scribbling from the mid-1990s similarly oscillates between transparency and secrecy. Some signs may be familiar to those with a basic knowledge of nsibidi, other African ideographic systems, Nigerian current affairs, and global popular culture, while others come tantalizingly close but ultimately refuse to reveal themselves and supply any specific meaning to the narrative.
The lobby [of the Kimpton Banneker in Washington DC] also features an abstract mural by Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk in addition to work from Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter, a co-founding member of Black Artists of DC.
Ekpuk, a Nigerian American artist, painted a mural for a new gallery, Arts of Global Africa, in March 2017. His art is inspired by nsibidi, a sacred means of communication among male secret societies in southeastern Nigeria. Evolving out of the graphic and writing systems of nsibidi, Ekpuk’s art embraces a wider spectrum of meaning to communicate universal themes.
2021-22 Sherman Fairchild Fellow Shiloah Coley speaks with Victor Ekpuk about the sociopolitical signs and symbols in his centennial commission.
Victor Ekpuk is internationally renowned for his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, which reimagine the ancient Nigerian communication system, Nsibidi, to create his own unique language of abstraction.
Illustration, one of the basic pedestals on which strong creative skill in art is mounted, exists in the trajectory of U.S.-based Victor Ekpuk.
Over the years, he has shown a mastery of illustration both for newspapers and books, creating minimal contents for mainstream art exhibitions. However, in the last few years, Ekpuk has installed large public space art and shows across three continents. More interesting is the artist’s sculptural executions.
US-based Nigerian artist, Victor Ekpuk has made public the acquisition of his paintwork Union of Saint and Venus by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, (NMAAHC).
Conceived by world-renowned artist, Victor Ekpuk, the new landmark sculpture in the heart of the Diplomatic Area pays tribute to the Kingdom and reflects the changing face of a 40-year-old institution.
Victor Ekpuk's room-sized installation, "Shrine to Wisdom," invites visitors to sit and learn, while immersed in one of his signature murals, which is based on an ancient writing system
One of the best ways to see the Washington, D.C.-based Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk's large chalk mural at the North Carolina Museum of Art is to turn your back on it and look around the rest of the gallery it's in.
