The Nigerian film industry, also known as Nollywood, produces between 400 and 2,000 films a year, which is why Nigeria is now considered the world's second-largest film nation - after India and ahead of the USA. The $3 billion industry is packed with accomplished stars, directors and producers. In October 2014, Nigerian-US artist Iké Udé (b. 1964) traveled to his birthplace of Lagos to photograph these same Nollywood celebrities. The exhibition Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D. C. features Udé's photographs for the first time, along with his photographs of clothing and other props used in the making of the films. Each portrait conveys a radical beauty by reconstructing and redefining notions of African identity. In this way, the artist makes a glamorous, bold statement about African identity at a time when the remnants of colonialism and widespread racism continue to threaten the lives of Black people on a daily basis. The exhibition begins Feb. 5, and its duration is pending.
Nigerian-US photographer, performance artist, author and publisher Iké Udé was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964. Early in his career in the late 1980s, he was involved in abstract painting and drawing; in the 1990s, photography became his primary medium. Today, Udé is best known for his conceptual photographic portraits. In them, he primarily addresses issues of representation and sexual, gender, cultural, as well as stylistic identity.
