Bob-Nosa Uwagboe

Multidisciplinary artist and leader of the Protest Art Studio, Bob-Nosa Uwagboe uses art as a tool to raise pertinent issues in order to begin the cycle that will incite social change.

Born 1974 in Benin - Edo State, Bob uses a variety of materials – acrylic, spray paint, crayon, charcoal and oils – and also incorporates everyday objects and materials, including artificial hair, clothes, ropes, sacks and sand. His paintings oscillate between the abstract and the representational, with figures formed through basic, elemental forms that act as ambiguous and ghostly presences.

Bob’s focus on social injustice exposes problems plaguing the Nigerian society. This work has often shocked some viewers. Without shying away from his subject matter, Bob dares to include provocative characters in the country’s social sphere. Police officers (seen in Police Brutality, 2018), government officials, businessmen and criminals, painted in caricatured forms suggest barbaric behavior which in turn reflects on the inhumanity that their actions embody. His Pan-African approach forces him to protest outside of his borders. The 2017 series The Victim of Human Merchandise highlights the inhumane trafficking of Africans in Libya.

Group exhibitions include Beyond Figuration at Omenka Gallery, Lagos (2001), The Last Picture Show, Muson du Parti in Cameroon (2009) and Breaking News at Art Twenty One in Lagos (2016). Bob’s works have been featured in a number of Arthouse Contemporary’s Affordable and Modern and Contemporary art auctions. Art fairs include Art Basel Miami (2015) and Beiruit Art Fair, Lebanon (2017).

Bob showed solo for his Homme Libre exhibition at African Artist’s Foundation, Lagos (2001) and Recent Works by Bob-Nosa Uwagboe at the Pan-African University, Lagos (2009).

Bob-Nosa’s inspiration from the city of Lagos propels him to continue asking questions, campaigning for justice and documenting the times. He describes his journey as a raw political critique on the ruling class. In his words, “The common man has been forgotten by the government, the elite accumulating wealth while the common man has no food to feed on. It is my goal to use my art as a form of activism and a call to action.”