Clement Mmaduako Nwafor

Clement Mmaduako is an award winning contemporary Nigerian artist and the creative art director of Clemspeter Art Creation Limited. Stewart (2018: para 1 line 1) states that he creates realistic oil portraits incorporating colourful traditional fabric. Clement works with oil paints and collage to create stunning, large-scale paintings on canvas, see Figure 1. His work mainly focuses on portraiture.

Figure 1- Nwafor, C. N. (2018). Large-scale painting on canvas. [ONLINE]

Clement uses Nigerian headwraps (gele) as a big feature in his work, he uses different pieces of fabric, resulting a stunning mixed media artwork, see figure 2. I like the realistic look of the fabric in his painting and how he has uses the contrast of colours which draws a link between his work and mine. I want to capture the importance of the traditional fabric by using the elements of the headwraps from his paintings. 

Figure 2- Nwafor, C. M. (2018). The Gele. Oil painting on canvas. [ONLINE]

Woman wear head-wraps for different occasions whether its for religious, cultural reasons and even as a fashion statement but traditionally in my culture headwraps are usually worn by married women. I admire his work so much because through his artwork he speaks highly of social identity and how woman can be celebrated through art. A head-wrap is a significance of respect and to me respect\ Ukuhlonipha ukuzazi ubuwena futhi ukuziqhenya ngemvelaphi yakho.