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Marcia Kure
Nigerian artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Marcia Kureⓘ (b. 1970) is a Nigerian visual artist known primarily for her mixed media paintings and drawings which engage with postcolonial existentialist conditions and identities.[1][2]
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 | This biographical article is written like a résumé. (July 2018) |
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Early life and education
Kure was born in Kano State, Nigeria.[3] She trained at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka under Obiora Udechukwu, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in painting.[4]
Professional career and work
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Kure's early work focused on political violence and the agency of women in patriarchal society.[5] Her later work is concerned with themes related to motherhood, haute couture fashion, hip-hop aesthetics, and her experience of expatriation.[6][7][8][9] Kure's style has been likened to contemporary uli, a graphic-intensive art tradition of Igbo women of eastern Nigeria that characterized by linear forms and minimal use of color. She often incorporates traditional African pigments, including kola nut and coffee.[9]
Images of veiled women commonly appear in Kure's work, beginning with Purdah in 1992.[10] She revisits images of veiled women and engages with textiles to explore the dynamic between gender and power.[10] Kure's work was featured in the Multichoice Africa's 2002 "African Artists of the Future" calendar.[11]
In a 2015 interview for ARTCTUALITE, Kure articulated the influence of space on her work, stating that she "[tries] to make an argument for people who do not have a defined space," and the ways in which she incorporates Western aesthetic techniques alongside those of African:
"I prefer the gray area that deals directly with oppositions and juxtapositions. I find the ability to inhabit different views very inspiring. I think the assimilation of western forms and techniques in my work allows me to integrate and interpret the world through a prismatic lens much better than one who has a singular view."[7]
Kure is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery (New York), Purdy Hicks Gallery (London) and Officine Dell'Immagine (Milan).[3][2][12] She currently lives and works in Princeton, New Jersey and Abuja and Kaduna, Nigeria.
Exhibitions and collections
Kure had her New York debut in a group show at the Skoto Gallery in 1995.[13] Her solo exhibition Cloth as Identity in 2000 at the Goethe-Institut in Lagos featured a performance piece where women wearing burkas danced hip hop style to Afrobeat.[10] She has had two other solo exhibitions at the Purdy Hicks Gallery in London and Susan Inglett Gallery in New York.[14]
Kure's work has been featured in group exhibitions, at institutions such as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the New Museum in New York, Barbican Art Galleries in London, the National Gallery of Art in Lagos, and WIELS Contemporary Art Center in Brussels.[3]
Her work has also been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, British Museum,Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, Newark Museum, Cleveland Clinic, North Carolina Museum of Art, Wanås Konst Sculpture Park, Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm,[15] Centre Pompidou, Sindika Dokolo Foundation in Luanda, United States Embassy in Abuja,[3] and the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston.[16]
Kure has participated in international art events, including the 2005 Sharjah International Biennial,[12] the 2006 International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Seville (curated by Okwui Enwezor), and La Triennial in 2013.
From January to March 2014, Kure was artist-in-residence at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.[6]
Prizes/awards/grants
Kure has received several notable awards and grants throughout her career. In 1994, she was honored with the Uche Okeke Prize for drawing. Later, in 2004, she received the Elena Prentice Rulon-Miller Scholarship Fund and Minority Work Study Grant from the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Between 2007 and 2008, she was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship and a Program Puffin Grant for Burqua as Shelter sculpture in Charleston, South Carolina.
Teaching
Kure has held teaching positions at various institutions. In 2004, she completed a teaching internship in St. Mark’s School, Southborough, Massachusetts.[17] More recently, in 2019, she taught at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden.[17]
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References
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