Iké Udé Nollywood Portraits

The cinema of Nigeria, often referred to as Nollywood, is a term coined in the mid-1990s to describe Nigeria's vibrant film industry. It consists of movies produced in the country but watched all over Africa and largely by Africans in the diaspora. The history and development of the Nigerian motion picture industry is sometimes generally classified in four main eras: the Colonial era, Golden Age, Video film era, and the emerging New Nigerian cinema.

Iké Udé Nollywood Portraits presents a selection of photographic portraits by Ike Ude depicting some of the major Nigerian actors and actresses, television presenters, directors, and producers. Notable figures include Genevieve Nnaji, Alexx Ekubo, and Kunle Afolayan, as well as Gideon Okeke, Chioma Ude, and Osas Ighodaro.

With his ongoing photographic self-portraits, Nigerian-born Ike Ude explores a world of dualities: photographer/performance artist, artist/spectator, African/postnationalist, mainstream/marginal, individual/everyman, and fashion/art. As a Nigerian-born, New York-based artist, conversant with the world of fashion and celebrity, Ude gives conceptual aspects of performance and representation a new vitality, melding his own theatrical selves and multiple personae with his art.