This installation, organized in conjunction with the 26th biennial meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists at Rice University, includes two sculptures and a triptych of banners designed by internationally renowned Nigerian-American artist Victor Ekpuk (b. 1964). Featuring original designs by the artist, the banners, titled Spirit Rising, include imagery that references ancestral figures by Oron artists from southern Nigeria, as well as symbols echoing the Nsibidi signs for love and togetherness. The banners are also in dialogue with Ekpuk’s sculptures, Mask and Head, which incorporate visual elements of ancient African sculptures.

The artist explains that, “My work engages with a diverse spectrum of meaning, often mining historical narratives, the contemporary African diaspora, and connection to the sacred. I am very interested in anthropology; I want my works to be starting points for dialogue and new discoveries into the differences and commonalities among cultures. Whether I am mining writing systems or exploring juxtapositions between the ancient and the contemporary—these excavations are important to my work.”

Organized by the Moody Center for the Arts with support from the Center for African and African-American Studies, and with additional support from H. Russell Pitman ’58.

About the Artist

Victor Ekpuk (b. 1964, Nigeria) is a Nigerian-American artist based in Washington, D.C. In his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, he employs glyphs that are inspired by the aesthetics of indigenous African writing rituals, such as the ancient Nigerian communication system Nsibidi, as well as graphic symbols drawn from global contemporary culture. 

Ekpuk has been included in various exhibitions, notably at the Princeton University Art Museum; The Tang Museum; Hood Museum; Fowler Museum; Museum of Art and Design; Newark Museum; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; 12th Havana Biennial; Dakar Biennial; and the 1st Johannesburg Biennial, among others. His works are represented in numerous collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India; Hood Museum, Hanover, NH; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL; Newark Museum, NJ, and various others.