Uzo Egonu Nigeria, 1931-1996

Egonu’s prints are characterised by an illustrious use of color and geometric forms. This series of prints was made in the 1980s and represent the mature phase of Egonu’s oeuvre. The prints originated from the archive collection of Bernard Cook, a printmaker in London who worked with Egonu for almost a decade beginning in the 1970s. As such, these prints are “Printer’s Proof” and “Artist’s Proof” editions.

Born in Onitsha, Nigeria in 1931, Uzo Egonu moved to Britain at the age of fourteen, and went on to study at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London, from 1949-1952. His work has been included in many landmark exhibitions of black British artists, including The Other Story at Hayward Gallery, London in 1989, and Transforming the Crown at the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York in 1996. Egonu participated in FESTAC ’77 in Lagos as a representative of the United Kingdom.