Bruce onobrakpeya's jewels of nomadic images: Improvisation and recycling as hallmark of ingenuity

Bruce Onobrakpeya is acknowledged as one of Nigeria's skillful experimentallists. A prolific artist and environmentalists, master printmaker, painter and sculptor, he is a legend of the moderm time in Nigeria and the rest of the world. This paper seeks to evaluate his work titled Jewels of Nomadic Images in order to highlight his achievements and contributions to arts. The focus here is on his contemporary method comprising the use of discarded materials from his immediate environment. Focus will be on Onobrakpeya's mixed media work, Jewels of Nomadic Images (1978–2009), the Tunics surrounded by pillars, Aro Eghwere (Prayer for successful hunting) and Nomadic Masquerades (Series panels) which showcase Onobrakpeya's use of recycled and improvised materials such as beads, leather, jute fibre, computer modems, spark plugs and a host of other materials. Onobrakpeya's mixed media art work has received local and international acclaim and has contributed immensely to the development of modern art in Nigeria. An important aspect of Onobrakpeya's work is his contribution to sustainable practice in the visual arts. His work under review extracts the ugly from the environment and repositions them, as aesthetic proposition.