Ben Osawe

Ben Osawe (1931) was born in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. His first instructor was his father, who was a sculptor for Oba Eweka II of Benin. From 1956-59 he studied at the School of Graphic Art at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Thereafter, he returned to Nigeria, where he taught at the University of Nsukka. He continued to practice visual art until his death in 2007. Osawe’s works are have been exhibited widely in exhibitions such as The Short Century, curated by Okwui Enwezor, and feature in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Nigeria (Onikan) and several private collections.

Osawe represents a formal school of modern Nigerian art that flourished in the 1960s and 70s. His works continue to influence contemporary forms of artistic expression in drawing, painting, and sculpture.While residues of forms typically associated with European movements such as cubism are apparent in Osawe’s work, the process is predominantly where the Western influence on his practice lies. The artist attributes his propensity for planning sculpture through drawing to his art school training, and he incorporated translucent lines as borders that compartmentalize minimalist form. Osawe was trained in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, and his works reflects a synthesis of influences that are relevant to much of the visual art produced in Nigeria post-independence. Following his formal training at Camberwell School of Arts, Osawe committed to using drawing to conceive of forms that would eventually be rendered as sculpture, the medium for which he is arguably best known.