Monsuru Alashe has emerged as first prize winner of the 2017 annual African crafts competition organised in Lagos by Cultural Arts of Waco, Texas, USA.
The second place went to Enitan Raji whose mixed media works were especially captivating, while the third position was won by Ibrahim Afegbua, a sculptor who specialises in wrought wire.
Monsuru Alashe beat other competitors because of added criteria such as originality and resourcefulness in the employment of innovative media.
‘He used weaver’s threads to produce paintings that really appealed to the jury,’ according to the judges.
The Cultural Arts of Waco in Texas, USA, decided late in 2016 to hold an annual competition of African crafts in Nigeria to benefit Nigerian artists. The competition would be an annual event in which the top three winners would be issued with certificates. Artists who make the shortlist are also to receive certificates of participation. The artist who wins the overall first position gets an all-expenses-paid ticket to participate in the main cultural festival in Waco, a major event which holds annually and enjoys a mass regional appeal.
Exhibition of works by artists on the shortlist for the first edition of the programme (African Crafts Competition) is currently open at the Yusuf Grillo Gallery, Yaba College of Technology, attended by a large enthusiastic audience that comprises of some major Nigerian artists and staff and students of the School of Art, Design and Printing of the college.
Artists on the shortlist whose works are being exhibited include Akinrinola Hamed Abiodun, Djaku Kassi Nathalie (Lagos-based, Cameroon-born ceramist), Sotonye Jombo, Kessa Babatunde and Eni Bassey. The show is expected to run till August 15 [2017].
Monsuru Alashe who leaves for Waco in October [2017] will be a guest artist at the Waco Cultural Festival where he will show his works, hold workshops and interact with audiences from all over Texas.
Annual theme and the emphasis for the competition is Telling African Stories. Waco Cultural Arts, in a statement, explained that it desires African artists to tell Africa’s own stories because news reports in international streams about Africa are mostly negative and uninspiring. “It is time to hear African narratives from African perspectives,” it added.
One of the objectives of the African Crafts Competition is to provide a platform especially for, but not exclusive to, younger studio artists, the venue for the exhibition could not have been more appropriate. Major artists in attendance included Adeola Balogun, Hamidu Ibrahim, Kehinde Sanwo and Sam Ovraiti (who also served as judges) with Ato Arinze, Aderinsoye Aladegbohungbe, Festus Akindolie and Tony Emodi.
The show was opened by the Dean School of Art, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology, Dr. Kunle Adeyemi, who thanked the main sponsors of the programme, Cultural Arts Waco, and their president Doreen Ravenscoft as well as the national organisers of the competition, Back Page Productions, a multimedia (publishing and film making) company based in Ikeja, Lagos. He expressed the hope that the cooperation with Waco will grow and that many more artists would participate in the competition next year.