For Immediate Release (Updated 10-5)
Lamidi
Fakeye, master wood carver from Africa, will be in the Kalamazoo Area for
several events open to the public during the beginning of October.
Lamidi Fakeye
will be giving a lecture on his life and work at Kalamazoo College on Thursday,
the 8th of October, at 4:00 PM. This talk will take place in the
Dalton Auditorium in the Light Fine Arts Building on the Kalamazoo College
campus (corner of Academy and Thompson streets). There will be a reception in
the lobby of the building immediately following the lecture. The contact person
for this event is Richard Koenig (269-337-7003).
On Friday,
the 9th of October, Lamidi Fakeye will be giving a carving workshop
at the Black Arts and Cultural Center. He will be carving and speaking on the
second floor of the Epic Center from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The BACC is located
at 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 202 in the Epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo. The
contact person for this event is Sid Ellis (269-349-1035).
Mr. Fakeye
will be giving a carving workshop for several of the eight grade art classes on
Monday, the 12th of October, at Maple Street Magnet School of the
Arts. The contact person for this event is Sid Ellis (269-349-1035).
Also on
Monday, the 12th of October, Lamidi Fakeye will be giving a carving
workshop on the campus of Kalamazoo College. He will be carving and engaging in
story telling for this event in the lobby of the Light Fine Arts Building
(corner of Academy and Thompson streets) from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. The contact
person for this event is Richard Koenig (269-337-7003).
Lamidi Fakeye will be giving a carving demonstration at WMU Tuesday the 13th
of October from 12:30 to 1:45 PM in Room 2121 of Kohrman Hall. He will then go
to the WMU exhibition of his works in the Richmond Center for Visual Arts at
WMU where he will meet visitors to the gallery from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Both
events are free and open to the public. Metered parking is available at the
parking ramp by Miller Auditorium which is adjacent to both Kohrman Hall and
the Richmond Center. The contact person for this event is Bruce Haight (269-387-5361).
Lamidi Fakeye
was born in Ila Orangun, Nigeria, in 1928. He is a fifth generation wood carver
and currently lives in Ife, Nigeria (see 2nd page for an expanded
biography).
# # #
Biographical Release:
Lamidi Fakeye is an internationally renowned traditional wood sculptor from
Nigeria, West Africa.
Fakeye has
traveled, exhibited, given demonstrations, and lectured throughout the United
States, the Caribbean and Brazil in an international career that began with his
travel to France for further studies at the ƒcole Nationale SupŽrieure des
Beaux-Arts in 1962.
Fakeye first
came to Kalamazoo with assistance from Irving Gilmore in 1963, where he was
hosted by Western Michigan University. WMU President James Miller was a strong
supporter of Fakeye, and commissioned two 5.5' verandah posts that were
exhibited in Dakar, Senegal, and London, England, before coming to WMU in the
mid-1960s. They appear in the current exhibition at the WMU Richmond Center for
Visual Arts.
Fakeye was in
residence at WMU again in 1966, visited Kalamazoo twice in 1972/3 as part of
his lecture/carving tour of 52 U.S. universities, and yet again in 1983. He
took an 8-month sabbatical from his teaching as a Professor of Traditional
Sculpture at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, at WMU in 1987.
While here he had his first major retrospective exhibition at Space Gallery, WMU.
Fakeye
returned to the U.S. almost every year thereafter and had his second major
Retrospective Exhibition at Hope College in 1996. He spent his second
sabbatical leave at Hope College in 1996/7. That year Hope College published
his autobiography as well.
President
Diether Haenicke arranged for WMU to purchase a splendid full-size door by
Fakeye, on medical themes, in 1998. This door was then borrowed by the
Smithsonian Institution for a yearlong one-artist exhibition in 1999/2000 at
the National Museum of Natural History's Focus Gallery.
During the
past decade Fakeye has regularly traveled to Winston Salem, NC, where he met
with his good friends and former teaching colleagues Eileen Wilson and Sope
Oyelaran. It is fortuitous that with Eileen becoming the President of Kalamazoo
College, the Oyelarans are helping to bring Fakeye back to Kalamazoo. This is
in the long tradition of warm relations between Fakeye and the presidents of
local universities and colleges.
We are
delighted to have this unprecedented opportunity to see him carve, hear him
lecture, and view his work from over four decades both at the Richmond Center
at WMU and at the Black Arts and Culture Center in downtown Kalamazoo.
By Bruce M. Haight
9/18/09