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The wonder that is Kelvin Okafor

First published on this site December 31, 2018 

First published on the internet – Thu 31 Jan 2013 12.50 GMT (updated)

Kelvin Okafor’s portrait of Tinie Tempah.

Kelvin Okafor’s drawings may look like photographs but are they art?  Well of course they are.  If photography can be art then Kelvin’s work is Art x 2.
The 27-year-old’s meticulous depictions of celebrities stand out in a culture that values video, performance, anything but drawing

Kelvin Okafor is a miraculous artist. If Leonardo da Vinci was alive today and he saw what Okafor has achieved with pencil, paper and a bit of charcoal, he would recognise a talent well worthy of his respect – a brother in art. So would the Dutch painter Jan Vermeer, or the Baroque genius Caravaggio.

All these great artists thought their job was to recreate, with a steady hand and a keen eye, the wonder of life. Okafor brings that craftsmanlike aspiration into the modern world. His drawings are based on photographs of celebrities – the same kinds of photograph we all see everyday. But instead of turning the page or clicking to another site after a second or two, this artist looks. He looks hard. It is an act of love and imagination to look as hard as that. The drawing skills with which he renders what he sees are truly sublime – it is amazing such skills even exist in a culture that places so little value on them. Art schools today encourage their students to think about video, performance, concept, anything but pure meticulous drawing. The fact that Okafor has got through that anti-graphic net shows that, in some people, a profound talent for visual depiction is innate, and will always burst out.

Okafor is 27 and lives in Tottenham, north London where he grew up. He went to Middlesex University. But his drawings are self-evidently a personal fascination: something he has to do. The soft, subtle accuracy of his style can mimic the contours of a photograph. But is that art? Personally I think pictures as skilful as these have an absolute claim to be art whereas most of the art that gets shortlisted for the Turner prize (and I say this as a former judge) has only a relative claim to be art, which future generations may or may not agree with.

Kelvin Okafor’s portrait of Amy Winehouse

Perfect drawing has counted as art for at least 40,000 years. In the exhibition Ice Age Art, which opens soon at the British Musuem, there are hypnotically accurate images of bison, lions and horses drawn on to pieces of ivory long before human beings could read or write. Ice-age artists drew the most visible and imposing things in their world, the great herds of mammals that roamed a frozen Europe. Today, what hits our eyes and haunts our minds is not nature but culture, the images of celebrity that fill our screens. It is natural for an artist to draw those.

Kelvin Okafor’s portrait of Princess Diana.

Kelechi

Okafor is not alone among modern artists who have fixed their gaze on celebrity photographs. In the 19th century the Iimpressionist Edgar Degas made a painting that meticulously recreated a photograph of Princess Pauline de Metternich. In the 1960s Andy Warhol made haunting silkscreen portraits derived from magazine photographs.

The art world lauds these figures, so it should embrace Okafor. He’s still very young. If you can draw like this when you are 27 what can’t you do when you are 40? Here is the talent that Damien Hirst can’t buy with all his millions.

Should Kelvin Okafor’s drawings, so close to photographs, be considered art? Tell us what you think.

Kelvin Okafor’s drawings were on display at the Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair 2013 at the Science Museum, London SW7 until 3 February 2013

Originally written by Jonathan Jones
Source: Guardian.com

Kelvin Okafor

Kelvin Okafor’s hyper-realistic portraits are often mistaken for photographs. This young British artist wields charcoal and graphite like no other! Not only are his portraits breathtakingly realistic, but they’re also extraordinarily emotive. We love the intimacy Kelvin achieves in his drawings; each of his subjects exudes an astounding, almost vulnerable, openness.

The artist’s fascination for drawing with pencils began when he was just 8 years old. After school Kelvin went on to study Fine Art at City & Guilds Art School and Middlesex University in London. His exceptional drawings very quickly captured the attention of the art world and Kelvin soon scooped up a number of national awards.

The artist has exhibited his work in galleries across the country. His first solo show at the Albemarle Gallery in London was a huge success and led to more than fifty commissions.

Quote from RiseArt.com 17th September 2013

“14 years ago (in 2011) when Kelvin joined  Rise Art, his drawings sold for a humble £200. Now (in 2025) Kelvin is a media favourite and his unique works start at £12000.”

 

Checkout Kelvin’s works

Fulgence Niamba

About Fulgence Niamba

Based in the UK, Fulgence was born in the Ivory Coast. He studied fine arts and graduated from the National Arts Institute of Abidjan, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris and from the University of Paris.

From 1983 to 2000, Fulgence taught Fine Arts in various institutions in France, here in the UK, and in the Ivory Coast, including a lectureship at the National Arts institute of Abidjan INSAAC, where he largely contributed to the development of a number of art teachers and artists. As an artist, he took part in numerous group, as well as solo exhibitions here in the UK and internationally. Inspired by the Symbolism of the Hebrew letters, the African traditions, and environmental issues, Fulgence constantly seeks balance in his work, which is characterised by expressive and geometrical lines, contrast of tones with a very limited palette. He also promotes Peace through visual arts as the founder and curator of the extremely popular biennial, UNESCO’s Art For Peace Exhibition in Paris. 

Education:

– National Arts Institute of Abidjan – 1978
– Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris – 1982
– University of Paris 8 – 1983

Events:

Solo exhibition – Newbury
Sat 26 May 2018, 6:00 – 8:30 pm (PRIVATE VIEW)
at ACE Space, St Nicolas Road, Newbury, RG14 5PR
The Exhibition runs from 26 May – 26 August 2018

Fulgence is currently working on a Community Arts Centre Project in the Ivory Coast to help young and non-established artists, with an art venue to perform in and showcase their works.

The father of 5, also promotes Peace through visual arts as the founder and curator of the extremely popular biennial, UNESCO’s Art For Peace Exhibition in Paris.

Visit Fulgence’s website

https://fulgenceniamba.net

Jacob Bennet – Artist

Jacob Bennett speaks about his life and his art.

“I was born in the United Kingdom but relocated to Ghana-West Africa at an early age. My passion for Art started when I was young. I discovered my ability to draw and I remember drawing pictures from books especially world book encyclopedias where I drew pictures of past American presidents.

View and Buy Jacob Bennet’s artworks

At Accra Academy where I had my secondary education, I pursued art, continuing later to the college of art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana, where I obtained a Bachelor of Art Degree in Painting with a second-class honours-Upper Division. In my third year and my final year I started selling my paintings in art galleries. I had my first exhibition right after university in 1996.

My paintings are more representational with the subjects mostly figurative rendered in a stylized and idealized way. I parade elegant women as sinuous as grazing gazelles bejeweled with dew. Tapered female faces in exquisite colour stare dispassionately like proud, virgin princesses. When I paint gourds, which is a large round fruit with a hard skin it is with the same relish. I dress the gourds up with such purpose that they become their own salesman: silently, imposingly. I rely on precision in my work. My technique is understated, controlled and waste less.

My power relies on finesse and sound craftsmanship to buttress my clear vision. The variety of colours I use are mostly applied thinly but occasionally in impasto. Balance sums up my style. My works compel discussion. Hidden in them are symbolism, allegory, indirect reference and esoteric purpose. My inspiration has always been the environment and my aim is always to create something beautiful and aesthetically pleasant to the eyes, that will offer observers the opportunity to get their minds off stress and to relieve them. I believe in allowing the viewer to participate in the composition by trying to interpret it.

The viewer or observer I say, must also express how he or she feels about the work of art, what he or she sees in it and the message he or she feels I want to portray”.

Professor Ato K.G. de Graft Johnson an art critic and lecturer formerly of KNUST, Kumasi-Ghana writes “Bennett is the quintessential artist. He searches endlessly. He experiments ceaselessly. Beauty happens to him by sheer circumstance. He has a unique artistic voice which has range, power, passion and discipline”. ”

View and Buy Jacob Bennet’s artworks