One Artist’s Experiment That Changed Nigerian Art

By Joy Eke 

Title: Madam Kofo (acrylic on canvas, 2020 by Abiola Akande

Araism Movement is marking 20 years of its formal existence with a special anniversary lecture examining its place and influence within Nigeria’s visual arts landscape. Organised by Ara Studio, the lecture, titled “Araism: Its Impacts on Nigeria's Visual Arts Space,” will take place on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the first floor of Kongi's Gallery, Freedom Park, Old Prison Ground, Broad Street, Lagos, Nigeria.

The programme will be chaired by Emeritus Professor Duro Oni of the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, with playwright and director Ben Tomoloju as guest speaker and Professor R. O. R. Kalilu, Vice Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, as keynote speaker. Ahmed Bashir Sodangi, Director-General of the National Gallery of Art, is the special guest of honour. At the same time, Dr Olatunji S. Sotimirin of Adeleke University, Ede, will serve as master of ceremonies. The founder of the Araism Movement, Mufu Onifade, PhD, fsna, is the chief host. The lecture will also be available virtually via Zoom.

Title: Ancestry, acrylic on canvas

The Movement was formally launched on July 22, 2006, at Bruce Onobrakpeya's Harmattan Workshop Gallery in Victoria Island, Lagos, with Onifade and five disciples, Olaniyi Omojuwa, Tope Oguntuase, Abiola Mautin Akande (Oldskool), Dotun Popoola and Jonathan Ikpoza. But the technique behind it dates back further. In 1989, Onifade began an experiment to find an authentic African painting technique, expecting it to take six months; it eventually took seven years, concluding in 1996. The technique was publicly launched at the Goethe-Institut, Lagos, on May 8, 1998, with the support of the late Ambassador Segun Olusola's Ajibulu-Moniya Gallery. Growing interest in the technique eventually led Onifade to establish the Movement itself as a formal platform for trained practitioners.

The word “Ara” carries layered meanings drawn mainly from Yoruba: wonder, thunder, body or skin, and relation, each tied to a quality of the technique: its visual impact, its blistering lightning-like lines, the skin-pore-like texture visible under close observation, and the relationship between its cracked, interlocking strokes. Igbo interpretations of ara, breast and madness are also cited, linked to the technique's sensuality and creative intensity. Visually, Araism paintings are built from intricate, interconnected strokes that create fractured, mosaic-like surfaces, achieved through a demanding process requiring discipline and sustained experimentation.

Onifade

More than 100 artists have been trained by Onifade at his Ara Studio, encouraged to build individual styles on the shared technique rather than simply replicate his own. Since its inaugural 2006 exhibition, the Movement has held regular exhibitions across Lagos, Abuja and Badagry, as well as an international outing in Florida, Cradle of Life: Araism Movement 12 (2014), followed by Araism Movement 13: Return from Florida. Its 20th exhibition was held at Iwalewa Gallery of Art, Lekki, in September 2025, further demonstrating how practitioners, including early disciple Oldskool, have developed distinct individual styles within a shared technical foundation.

Two decades on, that endurance- a six-month experiment that became more than three decades of artistic practice- remains central to the Movement's identity as the anniversary lecture turns attention to what Araism has contributed to, and continues to shape within, Nigeria's contemporary art scene.

Images: Courtesy of ARA Studio