Details of Joel Otuedor (Nigerian, born 1972)

Joel Otuedor generated controversy among a group of private collectors in Nigeria with a number of interesting curvaceous nude paintings. Referencing the erotic as well as the physiognomy of the female body. These works were sharply qualified and famously criticized as voyeuristic disorder, carnal, obscene, lecherously explosive and pornographic. But for Otuedor, the works were an ongoing representational ‘monographs’ on the debate of gender and identity. Portraying unclad women on canvas was for him a strategy for mapping his perspective as he essentially presents them through an intimate private space. In one of the works titled Beauty Room (2012), Otuedor exaggerated the proportion of his subjects to heighten the sense of connection between the viewer and the painting.  Away from nude pieces, some of Otuedor’s realistic life-size portraiture offers a close study on the politics of gender. In 2011 Otuedor was part of 12 Nigerian artists featured in the exhibition: ‘’Art by Contemporary Masters’’, organized by Tribesart Gallery at Waterfront Restaurant, Lagos.

Joel Otuedor studied Fine Art at the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo. He lives in Lagos and works from his home.