Lemi Ghariokwu
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Lemi Ghariokwu (born Emmanuel Sunday; 26 December 1955), also known simply as Lemi, is a
Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...
painter, illustrator and designer who is most renowned for providing many of the original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician
Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...
.


Biography

Lemi Abiodun Ghariokwu was born Emmanuel Sunday on 26 December 1955, in
Agege Agege is a large city and local government area in the Ikeja Division of Lagos State, Nigeria. Until 1927, Agege was the capital of Ikeja Division. Etymology Agege is an ancient Awori city of Otta dynasty founded by Aige. It was initia ...
,
Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
, Nigeria. He is from
Agbor Agbor is the most populous town of approximately 367,000 among the Ika people, in Delta State, Nigeria. It is located in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, in South-south geo-political zone of Nigeria, West Africa. Agbor is the he ...
,
Delta State Delta is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South (Nigeria), South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named after the Niger Delta—a large part of which is in the state—the state was formed from the former Bendel State, on 27 August 1 ...
but has spent all his life in Lagos. He grew up in Igbobi, Fadeyi in Lagos State with his parents and siblings. During his school days, he often spent his long vacations at
Ajegunle Ajegunle, popularly known as "AJ City" or simply "AJ", is a neighbourhood located in the heart of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. It is located in the Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local government areas of Nigeria, local government area of Lagos. Ajegunle in ...
. His father wanted him to be a mechanical engineer, so he attended a technical school, Yaba College of Technology Secondary School, where he studied technical and science subjects, but this was where his school journey ended. He decided to train himself to master his own style of art. Although his formal academic journey ended here, education did not. He read and equipped himself constantly with knowledge and developed his art skill alongside. He grew up listening to
Reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
songs and studying metaphysics. His maturity into self and social consciousness was facilitated by
Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...
,
Peter Tosh Winston Hubert McIntosh (19 October 1944 – 11 September 1987), professionally known as Peter Tosh, was a Jamaican reggae musician. Along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, he was one of the core members of the band Bob Marley and the Wa ...
,
Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known a ...
,
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
,
Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...
and
Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalism, African nationalist and ...
. Lemi is married with four children – Asilem Eweka, Tamara Ajasa, Omotosho, and Odafin-Nevo Shekinah.


Lemi and Fela

Lemi met
Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...
in 1974 through Babatunde Harrison (a journalist for ''Sunday Punch''). After Harrison walked into a pub and stumbled on an art work Lemi had done for the pub owner, he requested to see more and he saw one of the illustrations Lemi did of '' Roforofo Fight''. This spurred him to take Lemi to meet Fela. On this first meeting, Fela was impressed with Lemi's work and offered to pay him but he refused the money. This became his ticket into Kalakuta Republic. Lemi's relationship with Fela Anikulapo Kuti was very cordial. He gave Lemi total freedom with his work and thoughts to the level that he just did as he pleased, albeit responsibly, with how and what he wanted to express. Lemi had the rare privilege of putting his photograph and comments on some of the covers and was treated like a son, friend, adviser and comrade by the Afrobeat legend. Ghariokwu's approach to his work with Kuti involved listening to and digesting the music and then expressing his reaction in his paintings, design and comments, which provide a high level of detail on the many album covers he delivered.


Career


Art

Ghariokwu's work involves a variety of styles, often using vibrant colours and individuated typefaces of his own design. His art is said to be rebellious, comical, political, even erotic but most of all he is a genius in pictorial narration, realism and iconicity. Many of Ghariokwu's cover images echo and sometimes comment on the work and politics of the recordings that they accompany, serving a consciously integrated meta-textual function. He is famous for his captivating and intricate record sleeves designs and he never fails to give life to lyrics through his pictorial images. He created and mastered 26 of Fela's album covers. ''The Observer'' Music Magazine called Ghariokwu "King of Covers" during his solo exhibition in the UK in 2004. Aside from designing 26 album covers for Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Ghariokwu also designed covers for Osita Osadebe, James Iroha,
Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...
, Kris Okotie,
Lucky Dube Lucky Philip Dube (pronounced ''duu-beh'';
luckydubemusic.com, Retrieved 19 October 2007
3 August 1964 – 18 October 2 ...
,
Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a broadcaster, DJ, record label and festival owner. He is renowned for his genre-defying approach to music with jazz at its core. From this base he ...
,
Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba ( , ; 4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, ja ...
, and about a hundred other musicians across the globe. In the early 1980s, Ghariokwu was the consulting album cover designer for Polygram (
Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phon ...
+
Polydor Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
) records in Nigeria for 11 years. He also printed and designed album covers for many
Kennis Music Kennis Music is a record label, specializing in Afrobeats, R&B, pop and hip hop music, founded by Nigerian radio DJ Kenny Ogungbe in the late 1990s. The company's slogan is "Africa's No 1 Record Label". The current CEOs are Kehinde "Keke" Og ...
artists, including 2 Face, Lagbaja, Kenny St. Brown,
Sound Sultan Sound Sultan (born Olanrewaju Abdul-Ganiu Fasasi; November 27, 1976 – July 11, 2021) was a Nigerian rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, comedian, and recording artist. He was regarded as one of the pacesetters of modern hip hop music, hip hop ...
and many others, for 11 years. Ghariokwu has designed more than 2000 album covers and facilitated art workshops abroad. He designed for EMI, CBS and Ivory music. He also designed logos for ''Fame Weekly'', Ivory Music and National Encomium. MTV president Mark Rosenthal commissioned the painting ''Everybody's Gotta be Somebody'' from Ghariokwu. This inspired a film documentary by Aaron Koenisberg. Ghariokwu's work has attracted much attention in the West and is the subject of various retrospective exhibitions. His painting ''Anoda Sistem'', created in 2002, is in the permanent collection of the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
. Some of Ghariokwu's archive is now in the possession of Punch Records, whose CEO Ammo Talwar has invited the academic community to utilise this material in productive ways. In 2008, twenty of Ghariokwu's artworks were published in ''Area 2'', a book showcasing 100 emerging and influential graphic artists in the world, published by Phaidon Press in New York. He also designed the cover of Cassava Republic's republication of ''Fela: This Bitch of a Life'' – the authorised biography of Fela Kuti by Carlos Moore. In June 2010, Ghariokwu was commissioned and successfully branded FELA-BUS, a sort of marketing mural-on-wheels, for the producers of the hit Broadway musical ''
Fela! ''Fela!'' is a jukebox musical with a book by Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis, based on music and lyrics by the late Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, with additional music by Aaron Johnson and Jordan McLean and additional lyrics by Jim Lewis. It is based ...
'' in New York. Ghariokwu designed the cover art for Brymo's sixth studio album ''
Oṣó ''Oṣó'' (Yoruba: ''The Wizard'') is the sixth studio album by Nigerian singer Brymo. It was released independently on 27 March 2018. The album was produced entirely by Mikky Me Joses and consists of 11 tracks, including three recorded in the ...
'' (2018) and Falz's fourth studio album ''
Moral Instruction ''Moral Instruction'' is the fourth studio album by Nigerian rapper Falz. It was released on January 15, 2019, by Bahd Guys Entertainment. The album was recorded in Nigerian Pidgin and samples musical recordings from Fela Kuti. Its production was ...
'' (2019). In 2024, Ghariokwu designed the visuals for Pop Central's "70 Years of Music in Nigeria."


Exhibitions

Ghariokwu's work has been exhibited internationally for more than a decade. * 2002: ''Lagos: Past and Present''. Group exhibition in conjunction with Muson Art Festival Week. Curated by Chike Uwaogudu. Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria. Also exhibited at Nimbus Art Center, Lagos, May 2002. * 2003: Group exhibition that was a Sophie Sanders/Lemi Ghariokwu collaboration. Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. * 2003: ''Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti''. Group exhibition that included Lemi Ghariokwu. New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 11 July–19 September 2003. * 2004: ''Works on Paper''. A group exhibition that included Ghariokwu Lemi. Curated by Maika Pollack and Florian Altenburg. Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 23 January–7 March 2004. * 2004: ''Everybody's Gotta Be Somebody: a Ghariokwu Lemi Story''. Documentary film by Aaron Konisberg on Ghariokwu Lemi's painting. US premiere at the Jump N' Funk, Coral Room, New York, 28 May 2004, and UK premiere at the Spitz Gallery, London, 4 October 2004. * 2004: ''The Art of GHARIOKWU LEMI: P. E. A. C. E (Pictorial Evolution Acknowledging Conscious Emancipation)''. First solo exhibition in the UK. Curated by Debbie Sealy. Spitz Gallery, London, 23 September–17 October 2004. * 2006: ''Eyes of Africa''. Group exhibition that included Ghariokwu Lemi. Curated by Liz Bagnal.
Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a ...
, UK, July 2006. * 2006: ''Political Cartoons from Nigeria: Ghariokwu Lemi, Comfort Jacobs and Lordwealth Ololade''. Three-person exhibition. Curated by Maika Pollack and Florian Altenburg. Works made between 1975 and 2006 by three Nigerian artists. The cartoons, originally intended for a Nigerian audience, deal with figures such as Nigerian president
Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...
, corruption at all levels of government, and American foreign policy. Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 10 November–17 December 2006. * 2007: ''AmeriKKKa''. Group exhibition that included Ghariokwu Lemi and Roberto Visani. Curated by Mariko Tanaka and Raul Zamudio. Artist Network Gallery, New York, 19 January–16 February 2007. * 2007: ''From Taboo to Icon: Africanist Turnabout''. Group exhibition of 32 artists working in all media. Curated by Sophie Sanders and Shervone Neckles. Included: Sophia Ainslie, Ruby Amanze, Maya Freelon Asante, Terry Boddie, Kimberly Camp, Syd Carpenter, Colin Chase, Sonya Clark, Jamal Cyrus, John Dowell, Earl Fyffe, Lonnie Graham, Theodore Harris, Melvina Lathan, Franky LaudeB, Betty Leacraft, Simone Leigh, Ghariokwu Lemi, Heather Marie Davis-Jones, Tyrone Mitchell, Ayanah Moor, Keith Morrison, Karyn Olivier, Nadine Patterson, Debra Priestly, Hank Willis Thomas, Juana Valdes, Deborah Willis, et al. Ice Box Project Space, Crane Arts Center, Philadelphia, 10 January–10 February 2007. * 2007: ''Democrazy: GHARIOKWU LEMI and the Art of the Album Cover''. Solo exhibition. Curated by Bisi Silver. Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos, Nigeria, 8 December 2007 – 20 January 2008. * 2008: ''Lagos: Paradigm Shift – Art Exhibition of Design and Paintings by GHARIOKWU LEMI, Legendary Cover Artist, Illustrator and Graphic Designer''. Solo exhibition. Curated by Chigaza Hanum. Harmattan Workshop Gallery, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. 22–28 November 2008. * 2009: ''GHARIOKWU LEMI: Afro-Pop Art: Politics, Life and Lyrics''. Solo exhibition. Artists Resource Collective (ARC) gallery, London, UK. 15 October–12 November 2009. * 2013: ''Art's Own Kind: "Vintage Lemi", Axiomatic Expressions and AfroPop Series''. The sixth solo exhibition powered by Bloom art. Curated by Ugoma Adegoke, co-founder of the LifeHouse.
Didi Museum Didi Museum is a Nigerian private museum established in 1983. It is recognized as the first privately owned museum in Nigeria. History Didi Museum was founded by Dr. Newton Jibunoh in memory of his younger sister, Edith Jibunoh, who died at the ...
, Lagos, Nigeria. 25–30 May 2013. * 2013: ''Polemics.'' A solo exhibition. Red Door Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria. December 2013–January 2014. * 2014: ''Afro Art Beat''. Lemi's work was exhibited at a salon art exhibition powered by Red Door Gallery, hosted by Zircon Marine Limited.
Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the ...
(The Mess Room), Chelsea, London, 16 February 2014. * 2015: ''The Reinvented Covers''. Solo exhibition powered by Bloom art. Curated by Ugoma Adegoke. Lagos, Nigeria, 8 November–8 December 2015. * 2016: ''Art X Lagos''. Lemi's work was exhibited at Art X Lagos. Curated by Bloom Art Lagos (Ugoma Adegoke and assisted by Blessing Abeng). Lagos, Nigeria, 4–6 November 2016. * 2017: ''Afro Art Beat''. An exhibition of Lemi Ghariokwu's work in partnership with Temple Management. Lagos, Nigeria, 21 October 2017.


Other projects


Music

In 1992, Ghariokwu composed a single, featuring Daniel Wilson, titled "Omolakeji". He is passionate about songwriting and music with depth.


Fashion

In 2015, a pioneering, innovative and socially conscious footwear brand called KEEXS was launched in Nigeria, Africa by the founder Babajide Ipaye. Some of the shoe collection was inspired by some of Ghariokwu's art works.


Awards

* Nigeria Music Awards' Record Sleeve of the year * Fame Music awards * Favorite Sleeve Designer


See also

* Ikechukwu Francis Okoronkwo * Nengi Omuku * Ade Adekola * Newen Afrobeat


References


External links

*
Lemi Ghariokwu MySpace

Art's Own Kind Blog: Afrobeat and the Art of Lemi Ghariokwu

"I am not Black"



"My Name is Lemi Ghariokwu"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghariokwu, Lemi 20th-century Nigerian illustrators 20th-century Nigerian painters 21st-century Nigerian painters 21st-century Nigerian illustrators 1955 births Album-cover and concert-poster artists Fela Kuti Living people Nigerian graphic designers Nigerian political artists