11.10.1958–2021
Mike Omoighe
The Nigerian painter, curator and critic Mike Omoighe taught painting and drawing at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos from 1986, where he later headed the Department of Fine Art and served as a dean. A pupil of Bruce Onobrakpeya, he held solo exhibitions from 1980 in Lagos, Kano and Auchi. He led the Nigerian branch of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
Biography
Mike Omoighe’s first solo exhibition opened in 1980 in Auchi, in the former Bendel State. That same year he finished his studies at the polytechnic there, graduating with a Higher National Diploma (HND).
The artist’s full name was Michael Akhaine Osebhajimete Omoighe. He was born in Nigeria, by some accounts in the Opoji Ekpoma area of Edo State. The date, too, calls for caution: it is most often given as 11 October 1958, but 11 July also appears. He grew up in Lagos and lived there for almost his whole life. His studies followed in sequence: Yaba College of Technology (1978, National Diploma, ND), Auchi Polytechnic (1980, HND), then the University of Lagos, where in 1987 he received a certificate in polytechnic management. In 1994 he took a master’s degree in visual arts communication at the University of Ibadan. His teacher in painting is said to have been Bruce Onobrakpeya, a painter and graphic artist. From 1986 until the end of his life Omoighe taught painting and drawing at Yaba College of Technology. There he headed the Department of Fine Art, was Dean of the School of Art, Design and Printing, and Dean of Student Affairs. Alongside this he worked as a curator and critic and led the Nigerian branch of AICA.
The list of his solo exhibitions shows where art was being shown in Lagos in those years. In 1982 he exhibited at the National Arts Theatre in Iganmu, in 1983 at the Goethe-Institut, and in 1984 and 1988 at the Italian Cultural Centre. In 1990 he showed in Kano, at the Alliance Française, and at the Didi Museum in Lagos the series “Journey Through Savannah”. The exhibition “Emotion” was held in 1993 at the National Museum in Onikan. In 1996 in Lagos, at the Chevron premises in Lekki, he showed the “Beijing Series”. What exactly it depicts cannot be made out from the descriptions available, and I have not seen any of its pictures. In 1996–1997 there was also an exhibition at the salon Jacinta’s Place on Probyn Street in Ikoyi. In 2000 the exhibition “Survival Romance” opened at the National Gallery of Art in Iganmu, and in 2005 “Seasons and Chain of Coincidences” at the National Museum in Lagos.
Omoighe died in Lagos in January 2021, aged 62.
Profile notes