Bob-Nosa is an artist based in Lagos, Nigeria and his paintings
focus on poor leadership in Africa, in order to give a voice to the
unheard. As a political critique, his works exposes problems plaguing
Nigerian society caused by the ruling class- from poor leadership and
government corruption to violence, theft, election rigging and human
trafficking. His art is a tool to raise pertinent issues in the public
discourse, in order to begin the cycle that will incite social change.
These figures are formed as a kind of caricature, which come across
looking animalistic and barbaric.
Bob-Nosa Uwagboe was born in
1974 in the ancient city of Benin kingdom (Edo State), rich in cultural
and artistic heritage. He received his professional education at the
famous colourist school, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State where he
graduated in the year 2004 with a Higher National Diploma (H.N.D) in
painting.
Bob-Nosa as he is fondly called, retired immediately
to full-time studio practice after his one year mandatory service to
the nation as a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) at
Abuja. After a brief stay in Abuja, he relocated to Lagos to set up The
Protest Art Studio to explore his creative energy into an experimental
path that has resulted to thought provoking themes and often times spark
of anger, pain, passion and vision that are not often defined by the
subject matters and defy the border usually set by artistic canons. He
evokes emotion with his art in which he employs diverse materials
seemingly unconnected at first, he often succeed in challenging the
audience to deeper engagement with his work from which there are varied
interpretation and reflection mostly concerned with issues of falsehood,
deception, bad leadership and reaching to the unreached.
The
poor leadership in Africa and high level of inhumanity practices among
men that has become the norm is his primary interest as he interprets
these issues either offensively or defensively with his art. His art is a
puzzle, magical and consuming to viewers. Bob-Nosa creative process is a
moment of calmness, anger, pain, passion, therapeutic and evoking
emotion in which he employs diverse materials such as fabrics, his hair,
sand, papers, sack, rope, acrylic, spray paint, crayon, charcoal, oil
paint on canvas or board and this process is a moment of total surrender
to his will power and opening up his soul as a channel where good ideas
pass through and the result is of human significance with global
validity. Bob-Nosa has always acclaimed these words- ‘I don’t
pre-destine my art process, these might circumscribe my creative effort
and jeopardize creativity.’
His subject matters are the
provocative characters in the Nigerian social sphere, as well as the
urban landscape especially Lagos- a city of over twenty million people.
The average citizen is caught amidst unprecedented change with rapid
development, economic gaps and a lack of basic infrastructure, and
carries on through the daily hustle and chaos commonly found in Lagos.
With
originality and strength of his voice Bob-Nosa Uwagboe shocked the art
public in 2009 with his show “Recent works by Bob-Nosa” held at the Pan
African University in Lagos. Bob-Nosa’s arts can be found in many
respectable public and private collections both in Nigeria and aboard
and have shown in different important exhibitions worldwide. He is
married to Bawo-Okoro Uwagboe and blessed with a son (Osarenkhoe). He
currently lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria.
