Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede was born in Ayegbaju Ekiti, in the Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria, on 9 June 1943. After early art training in his homeland, in 1963 he moved to England to study painting and decoration at Willesden College of Technology, London (1963–66), before training in sculpture and bronze-casting at Hammersmith School of Art, London (1966–70). Jegede was an active member of the Caribbean Artists’ Movement (CAM) and co-founded the Rainbow Art Group, promoting emerging artists from Africa and the Caribbean. His artwork was inspired by traditional Yoruba art, blending his fine art training with his Nigerian heritage to create a unique fusion of European figurative modernism and Yoruba aesthetics.
Painter, printmaker, sculptor and poet, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede was born in Ayegbaju Ekiti, within the Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria, on 9 June 1943. He was apprenticed at a young age to local master carver Pa Akerejola, and later honed his artistic skills at the Yaba School of Technology in Lagos. In 1963, Jegede moved to England to study painting and decoration at Willesden College of Technology, London (1963–66), before training in sculpture and bronze-casting at Hammersmith School of Art, London (1966–70). Jegede took inspiration from traditional Yoruba art and blended his fine art training with his Nigerian heritage to create a unique fusion of European figurative modernism and Yoruba aesthetics. As noted by Alison Donnell, Jegede’s ‘[...] position within British culture rather insistently asserts the African foundations of European modernism’ (Donnell 2002, p. 159). Jegede’s sculptures in wood, bronze, and ceramics, as well as his paintings, reflect the Yoruba concept of creativity, emphasising the interconnection of inspiration and human consciousness. Described as an ‘a carver of very subtle and profound wood sculptures’ (Derrick 1973, p. 8), in 1968 he held his first exhibition at the Woodstock Gallery, London, afterwards presenting many solo shows in London and across the country. Jegede was among the many Black artists and photographers who exhibited at the Second World Festival and Black Arts and African Culture (Festac '77) in Lagos, Nigeria in 1977, where he showcased his work alongside other notable artists such as Aubrey Williams, Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, and Uzo Egonu.
In 1970, Jegede set up a studio and foundry at Riverside. He subsequently worked for London-based Black-owned publishing and printing companies, producing greetings cards for Bogle-L’Ouverture in the 1970s and book covers for Buchi Emecheta's novels including The Bride Price (1976) and The Slave Girl (1977) for Allison & Busby. In addition, during the 1970s, Jegede served as an artist-in-residence at the Keskidee Theatre Workshop, UK's first Black arts community centre, founded by Guyanese architect and cultural activist, Oscar Abrams, to promote emerging artists from Africa and the Caribbean and where Jegede later taught sculpture in the 1990s. Jegede himself co-founded the Rainbow Art Group, which included other influential migrant artists such as Lancelot Ribeiro, Errol Lloyd and Uzo Egonu. The group promoted the work of ethnic minorities, organising several exhibitions during the time of its existence. Jegede was also a member of the Caribbean Artists’ Movement (CAM), active between 1966 and 1972, which sought to celebrate and promote the work of artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians from across the Caribbean, to the British public. In the early 1980s, Jegede worked as an artist and designer for Haringey Council and has created numerous sculptures for public spaces throughout his career, including Prayer of Peace for Islington Council, installed in Elthorne Park in 1986 and Endless Omen for Peterborough Sculpture Park in 1988. Jegede also produced paintings. In his 1994 work The Unrealised Dream, he constructed a vivid, textured landscape of forms that were layered one upon the other in contrasting, vibrant colours. With its bodiless hands and mask-like faces, the work presented an overall image rich with spirituality and allegory, inviting the viewer to explore the condition of humanity and its collective consciousness, while Jegede's use of Yoruba symbols and motifs reframed universal philosophical ideals through a West African lens.
Jegede's work was included in the landmark exhibition Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1996, held at the Caribbean Cultural Centre in New York City (1997-98). This exhibition highlighted the contributions of African, Asian and Caribbean artists to British art and culture, and featured the work of Anthony Daley, Ronald Moody, Eugene Palmer and Rotimi Fani-Kayode, among others. Alongside Sokari Douglas Camp, Lubaina Himid and other diaspora artists, Jegede's work was also featured in New Horizons: an Exhibition of Arts, Royal Festival Hall, London (1985). Other notable London exhibitions have included The Colours of Black: A Black Arts Showcase, GLC Conference Hall (1986) and Contemporary Art from Nigeria, October Gallery (2001). An exhibition of his paintings and poetry was held at Swiss Cottage Library in 2005, providing a fascinating insight into the breadth and depth of his artistic vision. More recently, his paintings were featured in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 at Guildhall Art Gallery (2015). Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede is currently based in Akure, Nigeria. His work is not currently represented in UK public collections.