Winners of the last two editions of the National Art Competition (NAC) organised by the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) were women.
Tilley-Gyado with her prize
Last year, the Grand Prize Winner was Sesu Tilley-Gyado for her work ‘i-dentiTrees’ and the winner for Outstanding Concept was Halima Abubakar and Zemaye Okediji for ‘Patterns’, while Victoria Udondian with ‘Arti-tude’ emerged winner in the Outstanding Production category.
Making the observation at the briefing to announce the call for entries for this year’s edition with the theme, ‘Interventions’, Director AAF, Azu Nwagbogu, said in Lagos on June 12 that the seventh edition looks to be even more inspiring.
A lot more women have come into art prominence, Nwagbogu said, adding that in rebranding Nigeria, we need to promote the people doing great works.
Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries Plc, the company that sponsors the annual event, Kufre Ekanem, said the firm aims to promote the development of contemporary African art and raise awareness of social issues through the use of creative artistic expression.
“It is a platform to inspire budding and enterprising artists on how to enhance the quality of their art in line with upcoming trends,” he said.
He explained that this has been the case in the last six years, as winners have gone on to take part in exhibitions in Europe and Asia.
Entries, which opened on June 13, closed on July 21, while the names of those who qualify will be announced in August. The grand finale will take place on November 22.
The one different thing intended participants, who must be emerging artists, need to do this year is to send a one-page summary of their proposals as well as do a sketch of the work they intend to present.
The first winner will take home N2million naira, while the runners-up in the outstanding concept and outstanding production concept will take home N1million each.
