Four LIMCAF winners to get Anatsui’s nod to Biennale

Sculptor laureate of Japan Art Association, Professor El Anatsui, has pledged to sponsor all the four House Prize winners from Life In My City Art Festival (LIMACF) to the 2018 edition of International Art Biennale, Dak‘Art in Dakar, Senegal. The Ghanaian-born Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, also made a cash donation that covered some of LIMCAF prizes last year.

In its 11th edition, LIMCAF stopped over for the Lagos zone exhibition at the new Thought Pyramid Art Centre in Ikoyi, where the Anatsui donation was announced.

The 2017 LIMCAF jury panel is headed by the former president of Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Mr. Kolade Oshinowo. Other members of the jury include Joe Musa, former Director-General of National Gallery of Art, curator, Amarachi Okafor, founder of Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Jeff Ajueshi, poet and painter, Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo, and Artistic Director of Kaduna-based Masterpiece Artstec, Mr. Ayo Aina.

During the exhibition, former media practitioner, Senator Chris Anyanwu, who opened the exhibition remarked that “artists are the windows and the witnesses of our society and its fragility.” Anyone, she added, “with the penetration of our part of the world by digital media, it is now easy to showcase and market art globally thereby making the art scene more exciting where artists no longer have to go begging from door to door to sell their works.”

Sen. Anyanwu, who described herself as an art activist and collector of women-related subjects, commended LIMCAF for its effort to position art for social development. Art, she argued, should be seen “as a strong aspect of search for the positive transformation of our society.”

Ahead of the Gala and Award Night of LIMCAF, scheduled to hold in Enugu on Saturday, October 28, 2017, Executive Director of the festival, Mr. Kevin Ejiofor, announced former Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke, as the chairman of this year’s festival. Ejiofor said Duke would chair the finale of a festival week that features art exhibitions by different groups in various centres of Enugu, a photo workshop for aspiring art photographers from around the country, and a multimedia workshop by the acclaimed France-based international digital magazine of pop art and culture, CLAM. Other off events include a night of live music by the Music Society of Enugu (MSE) and the Enugu-based Sound House.

The 2016 Gala and Award Night of LIMCAF was chaired by one of Nigeria’s foremost industrialists, Chairman of First Bank Holdings and Chairman and CEO of the Honeywell Group, Dr. Oba Otudeko. The organisers disclosed that more than 200 entries have been involved across the 10 zones, out of which 100 are selected for the grand finale in Enugu. The process will further lead to 15 finalists, who will feature in the Grand Finale exhibition and Gala night opening in Enugu on Monday, October 23 through Saturday, October 28.

For 10 years, LIMCAF’s grand finale has brought the top 25 young Nigerian artists, including the prize winners and youths from across the country, art educators, journalists, curators, collectors, businessmen and art lovers to the festival in celebration of art’s enduring splendor.