Ben Osawe was born into an artisan family from Agbor, Niger Delta region, Nigeria, in 1931. Osawe's father was a royal court carver, a position usually inherited and considered prestigious, who worked for the reigning Oba (King) of Benin. In 1956, aged 25, Osawe moved to London to study art and design at the London School of Printing and Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Osawe’s synthesis of African contextualisation with European techniques defined his emergence as an influential African modernist sculptor. Ben Osawe died in Benin City, Nigeria, in 2007.
Sculptor Ben Osawe was born into an artisan family from Agbor, Niger Delta region, in southern Nigeria, in 1931. Osawe's father was a royal court carver, a position usually inherited and considered prestigious, who worked for the reigning Oba (King) of Benin, Oba Eweka II. He also produced artwork for other senior members of the royal court, including elite families within the Benin Kingdom. Osawe's earliest artistic training came from his father, who transmitted generational knowledge and skills to his son in his formative years in order to preserve ancient traditions. According to historians, Josephe I Osagie and Frank Ikponmwosa, 'The guild of wood workers (owina), carvers (Igbesanmwan) and leather workers (Isohian and Isekpokin) were responsible for the production of different symbolic objects that helped to enhance the dignity, royalty, and the authority of the Oba (Osagie and Ikponmwosa, 2015, p.9). Osawe would incorporate long-established carving techniques into his later artwork, creating unique forms and construction methods as a response to his early cultural training. In the mid-1950s, Osawe sought to expand his specialist skills through art training overseas.
In 1956, at the age of 25, Osawe moved to London to study art and design at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts (LSPGA), now the London College of Communication (LCC). Osawe joined LSPGA during its initial stages of formation, three years after the institution opened in 1953. LSPGA became a globally respected teaching centre and a leader in technologically advanced methods of production training (Murphy, 2020, np). LSPGA attracted students from the UK, Europe, and Commonwealth countries, with Nigerians like Osawe immersing themselves in the latest trends in graphic design, printmaking, lithography, and technical sciences, within a male student body. Osawe developed specialist skills necessary for the growing postwar industry in printing and production, and technical design, graduating from LSPGA in 1959. However, in 1960, Osawe moved away from the formalities of his recent training to the freer artistic experimentation of fine arts and sculpture. Osawe's strong portfolio enabled him to enrol at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (CSAC), now Camberwell College of Arts (CCA), where he studied from 1960 until 1965. Osawe's attendance at CSAC would be a catalyst for his synthesis of African contextualisation with European techniques, which marked his emergence as an influential African modernist sculptor. In 1965, Osawe's sculpture was selected for exhibition at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Glasgow, alongside other sought-after contemporary Commonwealth artists. In 1968 his work featured in a group show at the Commonwealth Institute, London.
Osawe incorporated a range of styles in his sculptures, ranging from realism to an abstracted African Cubism, expressed in futuristic heads and figurative forms. In Untitled Figure (1966), a wooden, geometric form emerges from three blocks, set within a smooth, curvilinear framework. Other characteristic works include The Thinker (1981), a seated female figure in bronze, blocky and angular, with a tilted, elongated head, pensive and self-contained in thought. Simply detailed, with powerful associations to ancient Benin bronzework, Head
Osawe returned to Lagos, Nigeria, in 1966 and continued to experiment with various sculptural methods, producing work for commissions within the local market and for international exhibitions. He taught at the University of Nsukka, in southeastern Nigeria, but due to the growing political crisis within the country, he moved to the capital, Lagos, and shared a studio with Nigerian sculptor, Felix Idubor (Highet, 1969, p.38). Osawe returned to live in Benin City in 1979, realising a style and body of work that identified with African themes, cementing his status as an African modernist. In 2002 his work featured in a survey held at MoMA in New York.
Ben Osawe died in Benin City, Nigeria, in 2007. His work is not currently held in the UK public domain. Osawe's works are in private collections and are held by Nigerian institutions, including the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos, and the Osahon Okunbo Foundation. Posthumously his work was shown in Nigeria at the Benin Art Fair (2025) and at Tate Modern in the survey exhibition, Nigerian Modernism (2025-26). Osawe continues to inspire new generations of artists.
Joy Onyejiako.