Union Bank Offers Artist N1million in Art Challenge

Guitar Gypsy by Olusegun Adejumo

By Udemma Chukwuma

As part of activities to celebrate its 100 years of existence, the management of Union Bank of Nigeria in partnership with One Draw gallery is offering artists the opportunity to win the sum of one million Naira cash prize in their Centenary Art Challenge.

The Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Emeka Emuwa made this announcement on Friday at the official launch of the competition, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria. According to him, all it takes for any interested artist to win the money, is to interpret the stallion logo of the bank with any medium of their choice and submit the image of the artwork to their website.

The competition with a theme Interpretation of the Union Bank Stallion, he disclosed, will be open for a period of four months for entries. He adding that they are eager to know what the artists would come up with. “What we are looking for, which is why we are launching this centenary art challenge is what the artists’ interpretation of the stallion would be? We have no idea of what it would look like, but we are looking forward to seeing what the artists will come up with.

From left: Emuwa, Lola Cardoso, Adejumo and a staff of the bank at the launch

“Union Bank has a storied history in Nigeria and our 100th anniversary is a unique opportunity to tell our story to different audiences. Artists are storytellers and this competition presents an opportunity to this community to help us tell our story from the vantage of our iconic white stallion.We are excited to celebrate the many stories that will come across through the works that will be entered in the competition.”

The director of One Draw gallery, and president of the Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria (GFA), Olusegun Adejumo, said calls for entries are in two categories. The first category, he informed, is for professional artists from the ages of twenty-five and above, while the second category is for undergraduate art students across the country.

Adejumo said the undergraduates are being engaged in the art challenge as they are the future.

He intemated that 200 works will be selected from the entries and the final 100 winning artworks will be on display for public viewing. “The competition is just to push to the limit what creativity can do to the stallion logo. To interpret the logo is the challenge, but the idea is to engage the community.”

For the professional category, N1m is up for grabs for the winner, N500,000 for second prize and N250,000 for third prize. The student star prize is N250,000.

The competition endorsed by GFA will run from June to September, 2017. To apply, visit: www.unionbankng.com/100