Bruce Onobrakpeya Nigerian (b. 1932) Ogbesia Vayeroye (Minstrel And Wife), 1992 plastograph deep color etching Miniature plastograph greeting card. Pencil signed and dated lower right, numbered 97/100 and titled lower left. Inscribed and signed by the artist inside card. Includes Sahelian Masquerades exhibition catalog for MOJA arts festival, Charleston, South Carolina. Biography from Steptoe.com: Considered one of the founders of modern Nigerian art, Bruce Onobrakpeya was born into the Urhobo people in 1932 in Delta State, in southern Nigeria. His father was an Urhobo carver. He was brought up as a Christian, but also learned Nigeria?s traditional beliefs, myths and legends, elements which he later incorporated into his art. His family moved to Benin City where he attended Western Boys? High School and was introduced to art. With a government scholarship, he studied art and education at the Nigerian College of Art, Science, and Technology, Nigeria?s first formal art school, located in Zaria, northern Nigeria, where he was trained in the Western tradition of representational art. After graduation he taught art at his former high school. While Onobrakpeya?s formal education was in painting, he is also a sculptor and is considered Nigeria?s foremost printmaker. Over his long career, he invented printmaking techniques of his own as well as experimented with existing ones. Most notable are his plastographs, a technique that he invented. A deep etching technique, the plastograph consists of engraving on a low relief surface made of zinc or similar material, and printed in the intaglio style, where the image is incised or etched into the surface capturing the ink, embossing the paper upon which the work is printed. Onobrakpeya is a founding member of the Zaria Art Society, established at a time when many African countries were struggling to gain freedom from colonial domination, and aimed at celebrating indigenous Nigerian cultures and freeing the country?s visual arts from almost exclusive emphasis on Western artistic traditions. The goal was to blend indigenous art traditions with those from Western cultures to forge a uniquely Nigerian aesthetic. Onobrakpeya is also a founding member of the Society of Nigerian Artists, and has taught at numerous institutions in the United States, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. His works can be found at the Tate Modern in London; the Museum of African Art in Washington, DC; the Vatican Museum in Rome; among others in Sweden, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Germany. 10 1/2" H x 7 3/4" W (sheet), 11" H x 8 1/2" W (catalog)