Glow with the Rising, 2025

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 150 x 120 cm

Artist: Chika Idu

Chika Idu (b. 1974) is a renowned multi-media international artist based in Nigeria, his home country. He studied painting at the Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State, from 1993 to 1998. His paintings are drawn from the relationships between children, women and their environment.

For over two decades of practice, Idu has created and mastered different unique styles and techniques for each medium he works with, which are vast; he has a rare gift of mastery of any of them he chooses to work with. This is evidence in his watercolours, acrylics, drawings, collages, oils and several sculpture media. His oils are characterised by a heavy texture and hazy rendition technique, this style of painting is inspired by his observation of light striking against visual imperatives like dust and misty fog, he calls: Light Against Visual Distortion.

Idu approaches his paintings from an observer's narrative as recording an ongoing dialogue and inviting viewer participation. For the past sixteen years, he has been committed to exposing the plight of African women and children with his work. Recently he began an environmental campaign on the health risks faced by children living in coastal slums. 

According to the artist, he gets bored with conventional methods and materials so he challenges himself with every medium to discover a new approach, method and style of medium handling and manipulation. This approach of material rediscovery has led Idu to the creation and mastery of different and unique styles and techniques for each medium he works with.

Idu is currently under international spotlight after being mentioned in two continents as an artist to watch out for in 2021. Besides teaching art at the French School, Lycee Louis Pasteur, Idu works in his Ajah studio in Lagos, Nigeria. He was instrumental in the creation of Defactori Studios, he also created the first Nigerian Watercolour Society of Artists (SABLES). He has been a part of numerous international and local group exhibitions.