ETERNAL GRACE
Architecture, painting, sculpture and design – Demas Nwoko has been celebrated in every area of his creative endeavours. He is a pioneer of Nigeria’s modern art movement, and his architecture is innovative while drawing on traditional African construction, belying his lack of formal architecture training (he prefers the title ‘artist-designer’). He is particularly known for developing mitigations for the tropical climate, promoting principles of sustainability decades before it came to dominate mainstream thinking, and influencing a younger generation of architects.
The son of a traditional ruler, Nwoko was born in 1935 in Idumuje-Ugboko, a rural town in southern Nigeria, and he cultivated his talent in painting, drawing and carving at secondary school in Benin City, where he moved in 1951. Nwoko initially planned to study architecture at Nigeria’s College of Art, Science and Technology, based in Zaria, but on discovering that the course primarily focused on developing technical drawing skills rather than creative expression, he pivoted to fine arts. The curriculum did not include African art, even though traditional African art was already influencing fine arts in Europe, prompting Nwoko and
