Chief Nike is an international star, a professor without a degree and an artist with a passion to start a cultural revival in Nigeria.
Heres all you need to know about the living legend, Chief Mrs Nike Davies-Okundaye.
Chief (Mrs) Oyenike Davies-Okundaye was born in 1951 in Ogidi-Ijumu, Kogi State, Nigeria. She grew up learning the common craft — traditional weaving and dying practice — from her parents and great grandmother who were musicians and craftspeople and specialised in the area of cloth weaving, Adire making, indigo dying and leather.
Spending her adolescent years in Osogbo, one of the major centres for art and culture in Nigeria, she learned indigo dying and Adire production from the famous Osogbo Art School. With this training, she discovered a passion for textile designs in the Adire and batiks.
From her first solo exhibition at the Goethe Institute, Lagos in 1968, Nike has since grown to become one of the major names on the international art circuit. She has had over 102 solo art exhibitions and 36 group art exhibitions in her artistic life. Many of her art works can be found in many private homes collections and public institutions collections including schools, colleges, universities, palaces and museums all over the world.
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