Akinbode Akinbiyi

Last updated

Akinbode Akinbiyi (born 1946 in Oxford, England) is a British photographer, author and curator of Nigerian background, who has been living in Berlin, Germany, since the 1990s. Due to his participation in exhibitions, festivals, publications and networks, he has become known as one of the internationally renowned representatives of photography in Africa.

Contents

Life and career

Akinbiyi grew up in England, where his parents had moved for university studies, and in Lagos, Nigeria. He studied English literature in Ibadan, Lancaster and Heidelberg. [1]

In 1972, he began as a self-taught photographer. Over time, Akinbiyi became one of the internationally recognized photographers of African origin. His main focus is on the rapidly growing and changing megacities of the African continent, such as Lagos, Kinshasa, Cairo, Dakar and Johannesburg. [2] In doing so, he concentrates on the unspectacular everyday life of people, seemingly without subjective interpretation of the objects of his pictures.

Working mainly with an analogue Rolleiflex medium format camera, Akinbiyi's personal style of street photography was described by art curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung: [3]

"Akinbiyi studies social structures, uncovers the hidden, and makes visible the unseen. On the one hand, it is the temporal rhythm of urban and rural lives that is of interest to him and, on the other, the way the architecture and the flow of the city influences those lives."

As author, Akinbiyi has written texts for exhibition catalogues and for the book "Just Ask!" on contemporary African photography, edited by curator Simon Njami. [4] In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, the German cultural institute in Nigeria, he founded an art centre, which has since developed into a network of African photography schools. [5]

Akinbiyi's work has been shown at exhibitions and biennials in Frankfurt, Berlin, Dresden, Tokyo, Paris, Philadelphia, Johannesburg and Havana, and has been published in various magazines. In addition, he acted as exhibition curator for the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, including "STADTanSICHTEN Lagos" (2004) and "Spot on... DAK'ART – The 8th Biennial of Contemporary African Art" (2009). For the African Photography Encounters in Mali, he curated the German contribution in 2003. As part of documenta 14 art exhibition in 2017, he exhibited his work titled Passageways, Involuntary Narratives, and the Sound of Crowded Spaces (2015–2017) in Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany. [6] In connection with the New Photography 2023 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Akinbiyi hosted a so-called "Photo-Wander" (a pun on wonder and wander) in Harlem, where he applied his method of strolling around the city. [7]

Akinbiyi has lived in Berlin since the early 1990s, where he has also exhibited his photographs of the African community and the city's colonial history, and has frequently returned to cities in Africa. [8]

Main exhibitions

Publications as co-author

Awards and recognitions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfons Hug</span> German curator, art critic and exhibition organizer

Alfons Hug is a curator, critic and exhibition organizer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goethe Medal</span> German award

The Goethe Medal, also known as the Goethe-Medaille, is a yearly prize given by the Goethe-Institut honoring non-Germans "who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations". It is an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. The prize used to be given on 22 March, the anniversary of Goethe's death. Since 2009, it has been given on 28 August, the anniversary of Goethe's birth. The first awards were made in 1955. In the intervening years, through 2018, a total of 348 women and men from 65 countries have been so honored. It is not to be confused with Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (1932–1944) and Goetheplakette der Stadt Frankfurt am Main.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okwui Enwezor</span> Nigerian-American curator

Okwui Enwezor was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ArtReview list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Njami</span>

Simon Njami is a writer and an independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist.

Contemporary African art is commonly understood to be art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field. All three terms of this "wide-reaching non-category [sic]" are problematic in themselves: What exactly is "contemporary", what makes art "African", and when are we talking about art and not any other kind of creative expression?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ananias Leki Dago</span> Ivorian photographer

Ananias Leki Dago is an Ivorian photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goddy Leye</span> Cameroonian artist and intellectual

Goddy Leye was a Cameroonian artist and intellectual.

Chika Okeke-Agulu is a Nigerian artist, art historian, art curator, and blogger specializing in African and African diaspora art history. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lagos Photo</span>

LagosPhoto Festival is the largest international photography festival in Nigeria and attracts over 20.000 visitors annually. Founded in 2010 by Azu Nwagbogu of the African Artists Foundation, the festival spotlights emerging and established photographers from Africa and internationally. With a strong focus on presenting historical and contemporary stories from the African continent, the month-long festival takes place at various indoor and outdoor venues and includes exhibitions, events, workshops, residencies, talks and digital programs. Some of the photographers and artists who have taken part are Viviane Sassen, Samuel Fosso, Hassan Hajjaj, Maimouna Guerresi, and Zanele Muholi.

The African Artists' Foundation (AAF) is a non-profit organization, based in Lagos, Nigeria. It was founded in 2007 by Azu Nwagbogu, as a platform for contemporary African art and artists working across photography, fine art, video, ceramics, sculpture, performances, writing and curation. The African Artists' Foundation has through the establishment of LagosPhoto festival, National Art Competition and its residency program raised international awareness to African creativity by also collaborating with institutions, foundations, biennales and festivals globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kudzanai Chiurai</span> Zimbabwean art and activist (born 1981)

Kudzanai Chiurai is a Zimbabwean artist and activist. His repertoire of art combines the use of mixed media which involves the use of paintings, drawings, videos and photographs to address and tackle social, political and cultural issues in Zimbabwe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rele Art Gallery</span> Nigerian Art Gallery

Rele Gallery is a contemporary art space and gallery in Lagos, Nigeria. It is on Military Street, Onikan Lagos and on Victoria Island, Lagos.

Novo Isioro is a Nigerian visual communication strategist and photographer. Between 2015 and 2019, Novo was Nigeria's Presidential Documentary Photographer in the Office of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. She was the first female to hold this position. She combined this with her role as Special Assistant on Visual Communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuel Eni</span> Nigerian artist (b. 1967)

Emmanuel Eni AKA Blackman in European Kitchen, is a Nigerian-born German artist and poet. He is known as a painter, sculptor, multimedia artist, performance artist and poet. THE NATION Newspapers describes him as one of the world’s most outstanding contemporary artists. Recently, he was listed in Forbes as one of the most famous and popular artists in 2020. Eni, who is famous for his fearless, soul-searching, philosophical art is described as an iconoclast of uncommon proportion https://thenationonlineng.net/how-germany-based-nigerian-artist-turned-lockdown-to-creative-forge/.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uche Okpa-Iroha</span> Nigerian multidisciplinary artist (born 1972)

Uche Okpa-Iroha is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist who mainly adopts photography as his preferred medium of artistic expression.

Thabiso Sekgala was a South African photographer. His work was about "land, peoples’ movement, identity and the notion of home". Sekgala's photography was published in a book, Paradise (2014) and exhibited posthumously at the Hayward Gallery in London.

Ala Kheir is a Sudanese photographer, cinematographer and mechanical engineer. He became known as one of the founders of the Sudanese Photographers Group in Khartoum in 2009 and through international exhibitions of his photographs, as well as for networking and training for photographers in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germany–Nigeria relations</span> Bilateral relations

Germany-Nigeria relations are the bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Federal Republic of Nigeria. Nigeria operates a Embassy in Berlin and Germany operates a Embassy in Abuja. Germany has a Consulate-General in Lagos and Nigeria has a Consulate-General in Frankfurt.

Folakunle Oshun is a Nigerian contemporary visual artist, sculptor and curator. He is the founder and director of Lagos Biennal, an organisation that provides an avenue for dialogue and development of contemporary African arts. Oshun works has been featured in many local and international exhibitions.

Adéọlá Ọlágúnjú is a Nigerian visual artist working with photography, video, sound and installations.

References

  1. ↑ "Fotograf Akinbode Akinbiyi: Wanderers Blick – DW – 23.06.2020". dw.com (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  2. ↑ "Akinbode Akinbiyi | World Press Photo". www.worldpressphoto.org. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  3. ↑ "Akinbode Akinbiyi". www.documenta14.de. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  4. ↑ Njami, Simon, ed. (2015). Just Ask!. New York: ARTBOOK LLC. ISBN   9783866789845.
  5. ↑ "Akinbode Akinbiyi: Ein Wanderer zwischen den Welten". Berliner Zeitung (in German). 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  6. ↑ Goethe-Institut. "Awardee: Akinbode Akinbiyi, Photographer and curator, Nigeria/Germany" (pdf). Retrieved 2023-08-12.
  7. ↑ "A Photo Wander in Harlem | Magazine | MoMA" . Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  8. ↑ "Akinbode Akinbiyi on colonialism and racism – DW – 06/19/2020". dw.com. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  9. ↑ "Ordensverleihung zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit" . Retrieved 2021-09-28.
  10. ↑ "Hannah-Höch-Preis für Akinbode Akinbiyi". www.kunstforum.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-10-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.