Exhibitions

Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits

February 5, 2022 – May 29, 2023

Genevieve Nnaji
Actress, producer
Born Amaimo, Imo State, Nigeria
Over 100 movies
© Iké Udé

National Museum of African Art
950 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC

Sublevel 1

See on Map Floor Plan

Multimedia artist Iké Udé celebrates the luminescent beauty and mystique of African visionaries by turning his lens on the talented people who drive Nollywood, Nigeria’s $3 billion film industry. Known for his performative and iconoclastic style and vibrant sense of composition, Udé’s photographs use color, attire and other markers to make elegant yet unexpected portraits. His photographs make a bold statement about the power of African identities, despite centuries of attempted erasure by Eurocentric art history and notions of beauty.