Path of Joy, 1993, Acrylic on Paper, 70 x 50cm
Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede is a painter, printmaker, sculptor in wood, bronze, ceramic and a poet and story-teller. His first tutor in art was Akerejola, a sculptor in his home community in the Ekiti region of the Yoruba speaking area of Nigeria. Later he continued his studies with Edo sculptor, Osagie Osifo, at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos (at that time one of only two institutions of higher education in Nigeria offering Fine Art). Then he came to London to study, and work, and teach, and exhibit, and inform, while also continuing to work in Nigeria. His sculpture has all the marks of his Ekiti background, his painting likewise, and his poetry is manifestly informed by the Yoruba tradition of oriki; yet all his art work, in whatever medium, is as manifestly marked by his own creative ebullience and distinctive presence, indeed by an asé personal to him alone.