Nike Davies-Okundaye

Nike Davies-Okundaye aka "'Nike Davies'" aka "'Nike Twin Seven Seven'" aka "'Nike Olaniyi'" aka "'Mummy Nike'" is a Nigerian batik and textile designer.

Early life and career

Davies-Okundaye, was brought up amidst the traditional weaving and dying as practised in her home town of Ogidi, Kogi State, in North Central Nigeria, though she has become known for a modern approach to traditional themes in her colourful batik and paintings. Over the past twenty years she has given workshops on traditional Nigerian textiles to audiences in the United States and Europe.

Finding that the traditional methods of weaving and dying that had been her original inspiration were fading in Nigeria, Davies-Okundaye set about launching a revival of this aspect of Nigerian culture, building art centres offering free courses for young Nigerians to learn traditional arts and crafts. Her son Olabayo Olaniyi, College of Santa Fe graduate, is also an artist. Davies-Okundaye has more than 150 students in Europe and America. She is also a philanthropist.

According to CNBC Africa interview, she trained over three thousand young Nigerians for free and she continues to help by funding many poor to establish their small businesses and art workshops in different parts of Nigeria.

Nike's painting is permanently featured at The Smithsonian Museum as of 2012, and her work is also part of the collection of The Gallery of African Art and The British Library, in London.

Published sources

A book about Davies was written by Kim Marie Vaz, The Woman with the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bourgatti, Jean M.; Vaz, Kim Marie (1997). "The Woman with the Artistic Brush". International Journal of African Historical Studies (book review). The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. 30 (1): 216–218. doi:10.2307/221593. JSTOR 221593. Reviews the book The Woman with the Artistic Brush: A Life History of Yoruba Batik Artist Nike Davies, by Kim Marie Vaz.


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