Fela Kuti

Name: Fela Kuti
Brand: Raknida
Price: 45.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Chibuike Clement Obioha

$45.00

Liberto Clems's caricature homage to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, creator of Afrobeat, shows him at the piano with fire at his back. He made it in 2017 to urge anyone still striving to stick to the hustle.

Fela Kuti is a Studio Edition: 20 museum-quality art prints in each size, each numbered in its white border. Every artwork comes with its Cultural Passport.

The Cultural Passport

Every order comes with the heritage documented.

Digital, emailed when your order ships: the work's story, the tradition it draws on and how it was made. 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm), ready to print and frame beside the work.

How it works →

Everybody in Nigeria knows Fela, Clement Obioha says, and this homage begins there. It begins with the man who built Afrobeat from Yoruba rhythm, highlife and jazz, and who never lowered his voice. Clement draws him as a caricature, which suits a life already larger than life. Fela sits at the piano with his eyes closed and a cigarette burning, lost in the music. Fire climbs the dark at the edge of the frame.

Clement made it in 2017 for people still in the middle of the struggle. "His personality inspired me," he says, "to inspire the younger generation and to inspire people who are at different stages of their lives trying to make a difference." The flames are for them as much as for Fela, a reminder, in his words, to stick to the hustle and stick to the struggle.

Motifs in this work

The flames: the heat of his music and defiance, rising beside him

Closed eyes at the keys: a man inside his own sound

Spotlight from above: the stage, and attention he never avoided

Edition: Edition of 20 in each size · 20 across all sizes. Further runs possible once a size sells out, each tagged (Run 2). Edition numbers count the works sold through Raknida; the artist may also sell their own editions of this work.
Numbering: Number, title and artist printed in the white border.
Printing: Museum-quality giclée with archival pigment inks on museum-grade cotton fine art paper.
Year: 2017
Includes: Your numbered artwork and its Cultural Passport.

Size	Sheet	Image	Museum-Quality Print only	Framed	Available
S	10 × 8 in	8¼ × 6½ in	$45	+$65	20

The artist

Chibuike Clement Obioha

Igbo · Lagos, Nigeria · 5 works on Raknida

Chibuike Clement Obioha, who signs his work Liberto Clems, is a Lagos-based artist best known for caricature. He works across pencil, acrylic and digital media, guided by a wish to tell African stories from an African perspective. A background in architecture and 3D environment design shapes his feeling for the space and atmosphere around his figures. His subjects come from Nigerian music, history and everyday life. He is co-founder of The Caricature Guys, which creates art experiences for clients, and across both practices his aim stays the same: pride, certainty in one's identity, discovery and peace.

View full profile →All 5 works →