Iké Udé

Iké Udé (born 1964) is a Nigerian-American photographer, performance artist, author and publisher. He is best known for his conceptual photographic portraits that explore issues of representation and sexual, gender, cultural, and stylistic identity. Udé currently lives and works in New York City.

Iké Udé
Born1964 (age 55–56)
Lagos, Nigeria
OccupationPhotographer, performance artist, author, publisher

Early life and education

Udé was born in 1964 in Lagos, Nigeria where he was raised. The eldest son of a wealthy family, he was exposed to photography and portraiture at an early age by dressing up for biweekly family portraits.[1] Udé knew he was an artist by the age of six, when he developed a habit of firing a catapult at passers-by when he disapproved of their walk or the way they were dressed.

As an adolescent, Udé attended the Government Secondary School, a British boarding school in Afikpo Nigeria. He was a habitué of London before he moved to New York[2] in 1981 to study Media Communications at Hunter College, CUNY. He began his art career in the late 1980s with abstract painting and drawing. Since the 1990s, photography has been his primary medium.[3]

Udé is a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria.

Work

Early work on paper and paintings

Udé's paintings and drawings are less well known than his photography, though critics and art historians have recognized his early work. The late Henry Geldzhaler, said of Udé's paintings and works on paper: "I am touched and amazed at the ways in which he manages to blend invisibly the modernist tradition with his own Nigerian roots. There is never anything forced in the conjunction; air and light seem to be his media."[4]

Cover Girls

Udé began his Cover Girls series in 1994. Each photograph imitates the cover of a popular fashion or lifestyle magazines, in which the artist himself is featured as the model.[5] The photographs were consciously stylized, posed, photographed and then paired with type matching that of the respected magazine. At first glance, each photograph appears to be an authentic magazine cover. Udé used the magazine cover as a stage to critique the fetishism of the upper class white model and the effects of popular culture on today's consumerist society. The series was exhibited in 1994 in the New York City gallery Exit Art.[6]

Uli

Udé's black and white series of photographs, Uli, references both high fashion and Uli body art, wall motifs from Udé's Igbo heritage.[7] The photographs explore the anonymity of the inscribed and disembodied self.[8] Udé's dynamic use of light, namely the chiaroscuro effect, serves as a critical compositional element in the series.

Beyond Decorum

Udé's Beyond Decorum series, begun in 1999, juxtaposes photographs of men's shirts and women's pumps with suggestive personal advertisements in place of the clothing's tags.

With its accompanying book, Beyond Decorum: Photographs by Iké Udé, the series traveled across the United States and Canada. The exhibition was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine; OBORO in Montreal, Canada; Sert Gallery; Carpenter Center at the Harvard University Art Museum; and MAK Museum in Vienna, Austria before traveling for two more years internationally.

Paris Hilton: Fantasy and Simulacrum

Udé's Paris Hilton: Fantasy and Simulacrum is a conversation between his alter ego, Visconti, and the celebrity Paris Hilton. The exhibition consisted of several mixed media works, assembled with material from gossip blogs, wallpaper samples, photocopies, mirrors, fashion and lifestyle magazines, and pornography sites. Combined, these pieces illustrate the construction of the Paris Hilton phenomenon, inviting viewers to question what they really know about fame and the aesthetics of cultural decay.[9] The exhibition was shown in New York's Stux Gallery in 2008. In 2009 the exhibition opened at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo becoming Udé's first solo exhibition in Norway.

Recent projects

Sartorial Anarchy

Udé's portraits, most notably those in Sartorial Anarchy, are a combination of wit and historicism. These works possess a contemporary haute couture vibe,[10] or what New York Times art critic Roberta Smith refers to as "irreverent, cultural polyglot self-portraits".[11] In a review for photographmag.com, Jean Dykstra writes, "As much as identity is a cultural construct, it's also an individual creation, and few people have fashioned a self with as much flourish as Iké Udé."[12] In an interview with Monica Miller, Udé said his purpose for creating Sartorial Anarchy was that "Medium-wise, I saw and felt a great need to push the language of photography forward, not at all satisfied by the prevailing old conservative approach and mentality that still obtains massively. I needed a robust visual vocabulary that is very particular, that I own and is instantly recognizable." Udé believes that despite today's level of globalization, people continue to dress according to their particular culture and lack "global conversation sartorially."[2]

Sartorial Anarchy is at once a reference to and departure from dandyism. Udé's conceptual use of historical and contemporary clothing attempts to catalog culture rather than to merely reflect fashion trends.[13] Udé constructs the costumes, props and his own pose as a still life, which is then photographed by an assistant. Udé paints the backgrounds for each photograph and completes post-production procedures himself.

The series was exhibited in The Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York (2010),[14] and in Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum (2013).[15] Udé's series was also exhibited at the Leila Heller Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Entitled Style and Sympathies, this exhibit presented a selection of his self-portraits from the series.[16]

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts,[17] the Sheldon Museum of Art,[17] the Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[17] have acquired works from Sartorial Anarchy.

The CHIC Index

The CHIC Index is an online anthology of Udé's portraits that depict stylish people in New York City.[18] The photos show the range of the individual's signature "looks," and feature, among others, Geoffrey Bradfield, Robert Verdi, Patrick McDonald, Steven Knoll, Somers Farkas and Jean Shafiroff.[18]

Publishing

aRUDE magazine

In 1995 Udé created aRUDE magazine, named in homage to the Jamaican rude boys of 1960s London.[2] The magazine is similar to Interview and features conversations with artists, photographers, and designers as well as editorials on fashion, beauty and style. While the magazine began as a print publication, it has been published solely online since 2009.[19]

Style File: The World's Most Elegantly Dressed

Udé is the author of Style File: The World's Most Elegantly Dressed, published by Harper Collins in 2008. The volume profiles 55 influential arbiters of style.[20] Style File features writings and contributions from Valerie Steel, director and chief curator at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology (F. I. T.), and Harold Koda, the former curator-in-charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The publication provides information on all of the 55 women and men profiled, including John Galliano, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Diane von Furstenberg, Dita Von Teese, and Christian Louboutin.

Ideologies

Fashion versus style

Udé believes there is a firm distinction between fashion and style. He concludes that "fashion is an uninformed, thrilling desire to be in agreement with the majority, and style is a cool intelligent refusal to disagree."[18] One of his most quoted aphorisms states that "style is not just about form and substance, it is also the luxurious deliberation of intelligence in the face of boundaries."[21]

Color and composition

Udé creates harmony through intricate rhythms of color and form. He says, "Color is as close as I get to, say, a Nirvana. Ever since I was a child, color has always—unyieldingly—curated my disposition, informed my artistic temperament. As a visual artist, color transports me into the ether realm of music and poetry."[22]

Exhibitions

Publications
  • Beyond Decorum: The Photography of Iké Udé. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0262522809. Edited by Mark H.C. Bessire and Lauri Firstenberg.
  • Style File: The World's Most Elegantly Dressed. Harper Collins, 2008.
  • Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty. Skira Rizzoli, 2016, ISBN 978-8857232294.
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References
  1. "The Wildness of Clothes, but Not for Fashion" Mary Billard, Iké Udé' The New York Times, October 30, 2013.
  2. Kino, Carol. "Iké Udé at Leila Heller". 1st Dibs. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  3. Iké Udé's biography by National Museum of African Art
  4. "Regarding Henry" by Julia Szabo, New York Magazine, p.46, 16 January 1995.
  5. Asinugo, Nic. "~The Jack of All Trades~ Iké Udé". The Naijaholic. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  6. Udé, Iké (1995). "The Regarded Self". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Fall/Winter 1995). Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  7. Udé's elegant photographs recalls the practice of uli body and wall motifs of his Igbo heritage while simultaneously referencing high fashion." Inscribing Meaning : Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art exhibition's presentation text, 2007. http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/inscribing-meaning
  8. The Jack of All Trades - Iké Udé on naijaholic.blogspot.com, April 9th, 2010. http://naijaholic.blogspot.com/2010/04/jack-of-all-trades-ike-ude_09.html
  9. Anna Battista, Paris Hilton: Fantasy and Simulacrum by Iké Udé, Dazed digital, 2009. http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/2857/1/paris-hilton-fantasy-and-simulacrum-by-ike-ude
  10. Glenn Adamson, Tsunami Africa, Art in America, March 2007. http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/tsunami-africa/
  11. Roberta Smith, Visual Culture Out of Africa, Art Review, NYTimes.com, December 2nd 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/design/03mad.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  12. Jean Dykstra, Iké Udé: Style and Sympathies, October 28th 2013, News & Reviews, Photograph.com, http://photographmag.com/newsandreviews/view/259
  13. Lisa and Monica, Anarchists of Style: Iké Udé, Worn Through, March 27th 2012. http://www.wornthrough.com/2012/03/27/anarchists-of-style-ike-ude/
  14. Museum of Art and Design: The Global Africa Project Explores the Impact of African Visual Culture on Contemporary Art, Craft, and Design around the World, November, 2010, https://madmuseum.org/press/releases/global-africa-project-explores-impact-african-visual-culture-contemporary-art-craft
  15. Rhode Island School of Design Museum: Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion, April–August, 2013, https://risdmuseum.org/art_design/exhibitions/23_artist_rebel_dandy_men_of_fashion
  16. Leila Heller Gallery: Iké Udé - Style and Sympathies, re-title.com, September 2013, http://www.re-title.com/exhibitions/archive_leilahellergallery17302.asp Archived 2015-02-26 at the Wayback Machine
  17. About the Artist: http://ikeude.com/about-the-artist/
  18. Daniel Reynolds, Interview: The Difference Between Fashion And Style With Iké Udé, Editor of the CHIC INDEX, Guest of a Guest, May 16th 2012. http://s1.guestofaguest.net/new-york/interview/interview-the-difference-between-fashion-and-style-with-ike-ude-editor-of-the-chic-index
  19. Udé, Iké. "About". aRude Magazine. aRude Magazine. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  20. Udé, Iké (October 27, 2008). Style File: The World's Most Elegantly Dressed. Harper Design. ISBN 0061464201.
  21. In Style File: The Worlds Most Elegantly Dressed, Harper Collins, 2008
  22. Monica L. Miller, "An Interview with Artist Iké Udé," Style and Sympathies exhibition catalogue, Leila Heller Gallery, 2013.
  23. "Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection". The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
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